THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


NEAR 


PARKERSBURG,  W.    VA. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  JPAIN 


By  ALVARO  F.  OIBBENS,  A.  M. 


FULLY  ILLUSTRATED 


PARKERSBURG 

GLOBE  PRINTING  &  BINDING  CO. 
1914 


CONTENTS 


i.     ISLAND  DESCRIPTION  AND  TITLE. 

6  2.     BLENNERHASSETT  AND  BURR  BIOGRA- 

>.  PHIES. 

| 

«  3.    STEPS  LEADING  TO  THE  EXPEDITION. 

4.  PREPARATIONS,   DEPARTURE,   THE 

WOOD  COUNTY  MILITIA  ROLL. 

5.  THE  TRIAL  AT  RICHMOND,  VIRGINIA. 

x      6.     DESOLATION,    RUIN,    THE    DESERTED 
ISLE. 

7.  PRIOR      OCCUPATION,      PREHISTORIC 

AND  INDIAN  RELICS. 

8.  PRESENT  OCCUPATION,  OWNERSHIP. 


447996 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1.  THE  HISTORIC  ISLAND  IN  THE  BEND 

OF  A  MAGNIFICENT  RIVER. 

2.  FRONT  VIEW  OF  THE  MANSION. 

3.  PORTRAITS  OF  BLENNERHASSETT  AND 

LA-DY  BLENNERHASSETT. 

4.  PORTRAITS  OF  BURR  AND  THEODOSIA. 

5.  VIEW   IN   VICINITY   OF   BLENNERHAS- 

SETT ISLAND. 

6.  MOUND  BUILDERS'  POTTERY. 

7.  PIPES  CARVED  OF  STONE. 


Copyrighted 

MERTON  B.  GIBBENS 

1899,  !9°6  ar>d  191* 

Parkersburg,  West  Virginia 


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VIEW  OF  THE  ISLAND 

HE  most  charming  of  all  the  ten  islands 
on  the  Ohio  river  frontage,  within  the 
area  of  Wood  county,  was  one  destined 
to  be  historic  in  American  events.  It 
rested,  ere  the  dawn  of  the  century,  like  a  gem  of 
beauty  on  the  fair  bosom  of  the  current,  while  the 
parting  waters,  golden  at  evening  and  radiant  at 
morn,  welcomed  the  kissing  sunlight  as  it  fell  alike 
over  surrounding  hill  and  vale. 

In  the  bend  of  a  magnificent  river,  with  the 
vinewr-eathed  and  willow-fringed  stately  trees,  look- 
ing in  kingly  air,  down  upon  its  peibble-decorated 
sands  in  front,  it  was  like  a  poetic  dream  of  Nature 
disclosing  itself  to  the  eye  of  fhe  traveler  as  he,  on 
his  exploring  way  southward  and  westward,  passed 
reluctantly  on. 

Perhaps  had  every  daring  beholder,  wh'otse  vis- 
ion greeted  this  delightful  scene,  gone  on  his  way 
toward  the  dominion's  of  Spain  with  unfaltering  oar 
strokes,  there  would  have  been  no  record  in  this 
volume  of  a  great  mystery  and  conspiracy,  and  t'he 
tranquility  of  a  happy  home  and  patriotic  people 
would  have  been  undisturbed.  But  a  Napoleonic 
destiny  barred  the  way  to  so  happy  a  realization, 


and  Blennerbassett  was  the  victim  of  his  own  ambi- 
tion or  the  wiles  of  another  whom  the  entire  Nation 
had  honored  and  trusted. 

It  is  said  that  when  Washington  and  his  group 
of  attendants  in  huge  canoes  made  his  land-inspec- 
tion tour  down  the  Ohio  in  1770,  he  marked  for 
entry  in  his  own  right  this  island.  Doubtless  he 
may  have  done  so,  but  in  the  multitude  oi  greater 
events,  which  crowded  his  country's  sky  the  record 
was  not  made  in  the  proper  land  office  of  Virginia, 
and  ihis  hatchet-claim  lapsed. 

A  pioneer  .writer  of  history,*  asserts  that  Colo- 
nel P.  Devoll  located  it,  along  with  that  tract  above 
the  mouth  of  the  Mu  skin  gum,  in  his  own  name  in 
1774,  and  sold  it  to  Elijah  Biackus,  w*ho  gave  the 
first  name  to  the  island  as  it  was  recorded  in  early 
navigation  maps. 

It  appears  to  have  been  first  surveyed  in  1784, 
on  a  land  warrant  issued  in  1780,  and  a  patent  made 
out  by  Patrick  Henry,  Governor  of  Virginia,  1786, 
to  Alexander  Nelson,  erf  Richmond,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  mercantile  firm  in  Philadelphia.  By  a  bill 
in  chancery  of  the  High  Court  of  Virginia,  procur- 
ed by  Blennerhassett  to  perfect  his  title,  it  appears 
that  E'lijaih  P>ackus,  of  Norwich,  Connecticut, 
bought  of  James  Heron,  of  Norfolk,  in  the  year 
1792,  two  islands  in  the  Ohio  riVer,  the'principal  one 

*Hildreth  in  "Original  Contributions  to  the  American  Pio- 
neer." 


I  SLAND       HOME 


being  that  lying  about  two  miles  below  the  mouth 
of  the  Little  Kanawha  river,  then  in  Monongalia 
county.  The  acreage  was  stated  at  297  and  t'he 
purchase  consideration  250  pounds  in  Virginia  cur- 
rency, or  about  $883.33. 

Elijah  Backus  was  a  lawyer,  editor  of  the  Ohio 
Gazette  and  tihe  Territorial  and  Virginia  Herald,  of 
Marietta,  7th  December,  1801  ;  elected  to  State  Sen- 
ate of  Ohio  in  1803,  and  removed  to  Pittsburg  and 
there  died  in  1807  or  1808.  He  was  once  name.l 
by  the  Justices  of  \Yood  for  mem'bers'hip  in  their 
court,  but  not  having  decided  to  locate  on  the  Vir- 
ginia side  the  commission  was  never  made  out. 

In  March,  1798,  Harman  Blennerhassett  ver- 
bally agrees  to  purchase  of  Elijah  Backus  170  acres 
of  the  upper  portion  for  $4500,  and  moved  with 
wife  and  one  child,  soon  after,  upon  it,  using  as  his 
residence  the  old  block-fliouse  about  a  half  mile  away 
from  the  upper  end  of  the  island,  which  building 
had  been  erected  in  the  time  of  the  Indian  war  by 
Captain  James.  Here  he  lived  till  the  completion  of 
his  memorable  mansion  in  1800.  In  the  primitive 
log-defense,  afterwards,  Daniel  Pusher,  who  had 
landed  on  the  is-land  on  New  Year's  day  1800;  lived 
a  few  years,  and  then  bought  in  Belpre.  He  was 
father  of  ten  children.  That  building  long  ago  suf- 
fered demolition. 

At  the  period  specified  huge  sycamores  and 
other  kingly  forest  trees  guarded  and  graced  the 


10  BLENNERH  ASSETT 

head  of  the  isle,  and  the  wild-grape,  trumpet-vine 
and  creepers,  thick  and  matted,  interlaced  the  shores 
and  touched  the  willows  that  encircled  the  wilder- 
ness isle  on  every  side. 

The  island,  or  dual  island,  is  narrow  and  long, 
extending  miles  from  head  to  navigation's  foot. 
The  river  on  either  side  is  so  narrow  as  to  permit 
the  distinct  hearing  of  ordinary  conversation  be- 
tween island  and  main  shore.  From  either  bank, 
back  of  fertile  meadows,  rise  picturesque  hills,  seem- 
ingly shutting  in  the  island  group  from  all  the  outer 
world. 


Harman  Blennerhassett 

.if   ~*AI    IFTED,  credulous,  fated  might  be  writ- 
"^     ten  as  characteristic  of  this  son  of  the 
Emerald  Isle,  who  sought  to  make  an 
Eden  within  the  wilderness.     He  was 


the  youngest  son  of  a  distinguished  family,  which 
could  trace  its  lineage  from  the  era  of  King  John. 
His  grand-father,  Robert,  having  emigrated  from 
Cumberland  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  became  the 
head  of  three  respectable  branches  of  the  Celtic 
gentry.  He  was  not,  as  often  asserted,  of  noble 
birth,  though  the  family  residence  was  Castle  Con- 
way,  Ireland.  Harman  was  born  in  1767,  while  his 
parents  were  on  a  visit  in  Hampshire,  England ;  so 
he  was  less  than  thirty  years  of  age  when  he  reach- 
ed the  shores  of  America.  To  his  education  his 
•parents  had  devoted  thoughtful  care,  and  he  grad- 
uated with  marked  honors,  destined  for  the  bar,  and 
attained  the  degree  of  Barrister,  but  was  not  at- 
tracted to  it  for  an  occupation,  and  succeeding  by 
the  death  of  his  elder  brother  to  the  family  estates, 
he  abandoned  law  as  a  profession.  Xature  had  en- 
dowed him  with  more  than  moderate  powers  of 
mind  to  pursue  investigations  in  natural  sciences, 
and  accordingly  he  delighted  in  these  studies  and 


12  BLENNER  HAS  SETT 

pursuits.  It  was  claimed  that  so  tenacious  was  his 
memory  that  he  could  repeat  the  whole  of  Homer's 
I  Iliad  in  the  original  Greek.  In  stature  he  was  six 
feet  tall,  slender  in  proportions  and  inclined  to  stoop 
in  his  shoulders.  His  forehead  was  prominent 
above  ordinary,  and  his  nose  was  the  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  his  kindly  face.  In  manners  he  was 
easy,  courteous,  social  and  interesting.  In  disposi- 
tion he  was  obliging,  charitable,  indulgent  and  hos- 
pitable, bestowing  his  gifts  upon  the  needy  with 
cheerfulness  and  without  ostentation.  Being  near- 
sighted he  was  compelled  almost  constantly  to  use 
spectacles.  He  was,  nevertheless,  passionately  fond 
of  gunning,  but  necessarily  had  with  him  his  wife 
or  a  trusted  servant,  who  levelled  his  fowling  piece 
and  brought  it  to  bear  upon  the  game  when  lo- 
cated. Peter,  a  colored  servant,  was  sometimes 
stationed  a  short  distance  away  and  directed  his  aim 
as  follows:* 

"Xow  bend,  Master  Blennerhassett,  a  little  to 
the  left.  Now  to  the  right.  Up  a  point.  There — 
steady — fire."  Off  would  go  the  rifle,  and  not  in- 
frequently the  frightened  but  unharmed  game  also. 

He  had  a  fine  ear  for  music,  and  excelled  as  a 
performer  upon  several  instruments,  and  was  the 
author  of  creditable  musical  compositions.  He 
was  domestic  in  his  habits,  even  to  indolency,  meth- 
odical in  his  plans  and  practice,  ever  studied  to 

*"Hildreth's  American  Review,"  1848,  p.  50. 


mSSESz  mSLM       B 


ISLAND       HOME  13 

make  his  home  cheerful,  even  to  luxury,  its  inmates 
happy,  and  in  the  entertainment  of  friends  both 
husband  and  wife  were  peerless  and  fascinating.  In 
dress  'his  style  was  English,  contrasting  with  that 
of  his  plain  neighbors  and  associates.  At  social 
gatherings  invariarly  he  appeared  in  satin  waist 
coat,  buff  colored  or  scarlet  knee-breeches,  small 
silk  stockings,  silver  buckled  shoes  and  coat  of  blue 
velvet  or  broadcloth.  At  home  his  dress  was  more 
careless,  in  warm  weather  rather  negligee,  with- 

His  wife  was  Margaret. Agnew,  daughter  of  the 
out  coat  or  waistcoat,  and  in  Winter  a  thick  woolen 
jacket  or  round-about. 

Lieut-Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  granddaugh- 
ter of  the  famous  general  of  that  name  who  fell  at 
the  battle  of  Germantown,  Pennsylvania,  and  after 
her  arrival  in  America  she  erected  a  monument  to 
his  memory. 

W'hile  it  is  stated  that  he  supplied  himself  with 
extensive  literary  and  philosophical  apparatus  in 
London  and  embarked  for  New  York  in  1797,  yet 
in  his  subsequent  declaration,  March  7,  1803,  seek- 
ing citizenship,  he  made  oath  that  he  "had  resided 
in  the  United  States  between  the  2Qth  of  January, 
1795,  and  i8th  of  June,  1798,  and  had  then  been  in 
the  State  of  Virginia  one  year." 

He  lingered  in  New  York  for  awhile  to  study 
the  people  and  the  geography  of  the  land  he  was  to 
adopt  as  his  own. 


14  BLENNERHASSETT 

Over  the  rough,  narrow  paths  of  the  Allegheny 
barriers,  with  his  wife  and  child,  he  passed  in  the 
fall  of  1797,  and  at  Pittsburg  embarked  in  a  keel- 
boat  down  the  Ohio,  seeking  a  place  for  his  castle. 
Landing  at  Marietta  he  spent  the  entire  winter  in  a 
pleasant  way  among  a  refined  citizenship,  and  pros- 
pecting by  repeated  excursions  into  the  adjacent 
hills  and  vales  for  a  site  for  his  residence.  He  had 
almost  decided  to  locate  upon  an  eminence  in  the 
rear  of  the  village,  but  the  steepness  of  the  ap- 
proaches and  the  discovery  in  time  of  the  captivat- 
ing island  in  Virginia,  below  the  Little  Kanawha, 
decided  his  purchase  and  his  destiny,  and  in  March, 
1798,  out  of  a  fortune  of  little  less  than  $100,000  he 
secured  the  main  part  of  the  island  and  fixed  his 
abode. 

The  next  two  years  was  spent  in  supervising 
personally  the  erection  of  a  palatial  home,  which 
he  was  ambitious  should  surpass  any  other  private 
mansion  west  of  the  mountains,  and  in  clearing  the 
grounds  of  the  dense  timber  and  undergrowth,  and 
in  beautifying  the  approaches  and  lawns.  To  this 
accomplishment  many  hands  were  requisite,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  contractors,  house-carpenters  and  the 
laborers,  the  ten  negro  servants  he  had  purchased 
as  grooms,  waiters  and  watermen.  Forest  trees, 
the  growth  of  years  innumerable  were  uprooted, 
boughs  and  trunks  burned  or  conveyed  away,  and 
the  inequalities  of  ground  surface  were  smoothed 


ISLAND       HOME  15 

and  changed  in  accordance  with  artistic  taste.  The 
giant  trees,  save  ihere  and  there  reserved  ones,  to- 
gether with  underbrush  which  might  obstruct  de- 
lightful view  to  the  traveler  descending  Ohio's  cur- 
rent, were  removed  from  the  broad  front  of  the  up- 
per portion  of  the  sand-pebbled  gently-sloping  head 
of  the  island.  Elms,  sycamores,  and  cottonwoods 
were  sacrificed  'neath  the  strokes  of  the  woodman's 
axe,  tihat  better,  grander  view  might  be  had  of  the 
palatial  mansion,  which  he  had  painted  an  alabaster 
whiteness. 

Col.  Joseph  Barker,  of  Marietta,  who,  a  few 
years  after,  in  1803,  built  a  brigatine  and  named  it 
Dominic,  for  Hlennerhassett's  oldest  son,  was  the 
principal  architect  of  this  uniquely  planned  resi- 
dence of  costly  beauty.  An  exterior  view  is  given 
in  the  cut  presented.  Springing  up  at  that  era  of 
of  primitive  cabins,  in  almost  a  wilderness,  which 
had  just  emerged  from  the  perils  of  Indian  warfare 
and  the  presence  of  ferocious  game,  it  was  like  a 
creation  of  magic,  a  revelation  of  paradise  in  a 
"boundless  contiguity  of  shade"  and  unadorned  na- 
ture. The  c6st  of  the  princely  building,  remote 
from  the  marts  of  industry  and  art,  was,  it  is  said, 
in  excess  of  a  half  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The 
exterior  improvements  of  walks,  lawns,  shrubbery, 
orchards,  flowers  and  clearing  of  an  hundred  acre 
farm  below  tihe  structure,  doubtless  added  ten 
thousand  more,  the  entire  expenditure  of  which 


16  BLENNERHASSETT 

among  farmers,  mechanics  and  laborers  was  an  ap- 
preciated benefit  where  money  was  scarce  and 
opportunities  to  earn  it  few  indeed. 

No  expense  was  spared  in  the  construction  and 
decoration,  which  might  impart  splendor,  useful- 
ness, or  convenience.  Tlhe  main  building  fronted 
the  east  and  was  two  stories  high,  52  feet  in  length 
and  30  feet  in  width.  Across  the  front  a  deep  por- 
tico extended,  and  thence  on  either  side  in  circular 
wings,  single  stories,  40  feet  in  length,  connected 
the  principal  or  center  building  with  buildings  on 
the  north  and  south  sides,  each  also  facing  the  east, 
and  being  26  feet  in  length  and  20  feet  in  depth  ami 
two  stories  high.  The  entire  structure  formed  half 
of  an  eclipse,  with  frontage  of  one  hundred  and  four 
feet,  exclusive  of  the  circular  porticoes,  or  promen- 
ade extensions.  The  right  hand  wing  was  used  for 
library,  philosophical  apparatus,  laboratory  and 
study ;  the  left  appropriated  to  an  occupancy  by  the 
servants.  The  united  taste,  culture  and  consulta- 
tion of  the  Blennerhassett  pair  brought  finishing, 
furnishing  and  furniture  of  every  apartment  in  har- 
mony and  unison  with  a  matured  plan  and  ideal. 
The  furniture,  of  the  best,  latest  and  richest,  in 
every  room,  was  brought  from  the  East  by  wagon, 
through  Pittsburgh,  and  thence  down  the  Ohio  by 
barge  and  keel,  and  was  selected  to  please  the  eye 
and  luxurious  comfort  and  convenience  to  family 
and  numerous  guests. 


ISLAND       HOME  17 

The  hall,  a  spacious  room,  was  painted  somber 
color,  with  cornice  of  plaster,  bordered  with  mould- 
ing of  gilt,  extending  around  the  lofty  ceiling,  with 
rich,  heavy  furniture  to  correspond.  The  drawing 
room  contrasted  with  the  hall  in  having  furniture 
light  in  hue  and  structure,  and  elegant,  with  gay 
carpets,  splendid  mirrors,  rich  curtains,  classic  pic- 
tures and  artistic  ornaments.  The  side-^boards — 
with  decanters  and  wine  glasses,  indispensible  to 
Virginia  hospitality  in  early  times — was  graced,  as 
were  the  tables,  by  a  liberal  supply  of  silverware. 
The  finest  taste  in  all  the  interior,  as  well  as  beauty 
of  the  exterior  surroundings,  indicated  the  refine- 
ment of  owner  and  hostess,  and  the  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  the  finest  estate  in  the  Virginia  section 
of  the  Western  world,  compensated  them  partly  for 
their  absence  and  immigration  from  associates  and 
heritage  in  the  older  land  across  the  wide,  wide  sea. 

Greeting  the  eyes  in  front  of  this  mansion, 
which  had  been  built  of  wood  in  view  of  safety  in 
case  of  supposed  earthquakes,  was  in  process  of 
brief  time  a  graded  lawn  of  several  acres  adorned 
with  walks  and  dotted  here  and  there  with  shrub- 
bery and  clusters  of  bright  flowers  and  extending 
eastward  to  the  rippling  water's  edge  of  the  upper 
end  of  the  island,  with  an  opening  in  the  reserved 
trees. 

From  the  dwelling  a  gravelled  carriage  way  and 
walks  led  through  a  vine  ornamented  gateway  to 


18  BLENNERHAiSSETT 

the  river  on  the  north  side,  where  light  'boats  were 
moored  and  slave  attendants  ready  to  ferry  to  the 
Ohio  shore.  This  useful  avenue  was  bordered  with 
a  thick  hedge  of  native  hawthorn.  In  the  distance 
of  this  landscape  picture  were  the  forest  trees  and 
copse-wood,  forming  vistas  for  sunshine  and  storm 
to  play  in  and  delight  the  vision. 

The  space  immediately  in  the  rear  and  to  the 
west  of  the  ideal  home  was  assigned  for  fruits  and 
flowers  of  richest  hue,  and  rare  shrubbery  in  beds 
and  gracefully  curved  walks.  The  wide  area  on  the 
exterior  border  was  circled  by  a  picket  fence,  along 
whose  line  were  planted  peach,  pear,  quince  and  ap- 
ricot trees,  facing  winding  walks,  over  which  floated 
in  dewy  morn,  and  sunlit  noon,  and  dreamy  eve,  de- 
licious odor  of  mingled  and  embowered  honey- 
suckle, eglatine  and  similar  flowering  shrubs. 

On  the  south  was  an  extensive  vegetable  gar- 
den, and  adjacent  to  it  a  thrifty  orchard  of  apple, 
plum,  cherry  and  similar  fruits,  in  great  variety. 

The  farm  below,  westward,  was  of  alluvial  soil, 
naturally  rich  and  productive  and  kept  improved 
and  highly  cultivated,  yielding  then  as  now  in  abund- 
ance wheat,  corn  and  other  grains,  and  its  meadows 
were  stocked  with  the  best  breeds  of  cattle  and 
swine. 

This  estate  upon  a  lovely  island,  when  much 
labor  and  money  had  been  expended  upon  it,  and  a 
few  years  of  joyous  possession  had  wafted  by,  was 


ISLAND       HOME  19 

indeed  a  rich  dominion  for  cultivated  minds,  a  pic- 
ture of  peace,  repose,  quietude,  innocence  and  happi- 
ness. 

Here  in  this  mansion — almost  a  baronial  castle 
when  contrasted  with  its  cabins,  wilderness  and 
pioneer  neighbors,  on  both  sides  of  the  grand  river — 
the  rich  Irish  barrister  and  his  accomplished  wife 
and  children,  spent  nearly  six  years  of  delightful 
existence.  His  retinue  of  employes  and  servants 
was  large,  and  while  the  house  was  in  process  of 
erection  and  the  improvements  of  lawns  and  farm 
progressing,  afforded  sustenance  to  many  in  those 
years  of  hardships  and  scarcity.  His  gardener, 
Peter  Taylor,  had  been  brought  from  England, 
Thomas  Neale,  a  pioneer  of  Virginia,  was  long  his 
dairyman  and  farm  superintendent. 

The  self-exiled  Blennerhassett,  when  seeking 
relaxation  or  change  from  his  library,  pictures,  vio- 
lincello  and  chemical  laboratory,  spent  the  hours  in 
the  village  of  Newport,  on  the  Virginia  shore,  or  at 
Belleville  settlement,  at  Farmer's  Castle  in  Belpre, 
or  the  Harmar  fort,  chatting  socially  with  those 
congenial  pioneers.  When  at  social  gatherings,  he 
invariably  appeared  in  the  prescribed  outfit  of  an 
English  gentleman. 

His  wife,  Lady  Margaret,  was  properly  the  mis- 
tress of  a  refined  home.  Both  were  hospitable,  fond 
of  party  and  dance,  and  often  broke  the  isolation  of 
their  water-encircled  home  by  invitations  to  her 


20  BLENNERHASSETT 

drawing  room  of  the  youth  and  beauty  of  the  vil- 
lages on  both  sides,  she  being  the  very  center  and 
magnet  of  an  animated  circle.  She  had  been  with 
scrupulous  care  brought  up  and  educated  in  Eng- 
land by  two  maiden  aunts,  and  was  taught  not  only 
the  languages  and  higher  branches  of  a  literary  edu- 
cation, but  initiated  into  the  practical  arts  of  house- 
wifery and  supervision  as  well.  She  could  read  and 
fluently  converse  in  Italian  and  French,  and  was 
endowed  in  mind  and  manner  and  educated  to  grace 
with  ease  any  position  in  the  courts  of  Europe.  In 
figure  she  was  tall  and  well  proportioned,  impres- 
sive in  appearance,  graceful,  yet  dignified,  with  deli- 
cately moulded  features,  fair  and  almost  transparent 
complexion,  a  swan-like  neck,  the  feminine  envy  of 
that  era,  dark  blue  eyes  of  sparkling  intelligence 
and  radiant  capability,  abundant  and  glossy  hair  of 
rich  brown  hue.  In  dress  her  taste  inclined  to  the 
showy  and  attractive,  and  she  aimed  to  select  and 
adapt  her  outfit  to  her  well-shaped  form. 

She  was  passionately  fond  of  outdoor  exercise 
and  recreation,  rowing,  riding  and  walking.  Her 
step  was  elastic  and  graceful,  whether  passing 
among  and  caring  for  shrubbery  and  flowers  or 
vaulting  into  the  saddle  of  her  favorite  steed,  or 
upon  the  waxed  floor  of  the  private  ball  room ;  in 
each  she  was  enthusiastic  and  admired.  In  the  sad- 
dle she  was  an  expert  equestrienne,  and  her  favorite 
horse,  Robin,  in  his  bright  trappings,  seemed  ever 


ISLAND       HOME  21 

proud  of  his  mistress  as  both  bounded  swiftly 
along  the  forest  road  from  the  shore  opposite  the 
island  to  Marietta  village  or  Fort  Harmar  and  back 
again. 

Often  her  cloth,  scarlet  riding  robe,  spangled 
with  gold  lace  and  glittering  buttons  and  her  flow- 
ing tresses  waving  beneath  her  ostrich-plumed  hat, 
glimmered  in  the  vine  and  leaf-tangled  woods,  as 
she  fleetly  rode  along  the  river  paths  with  her 
dusky,  polite  and  faithful  servant,  Ransom,  in  the 
rear,  spurring  his  charger  to  keep  in  sight  of  his 
charge,  and  only  so  doing  when  she  checked  her 
steed  to  await  his  coming.  Like  a  fawn  or  fairy  of 
sylvan  creation  she  seemed  to  dart  along  her  course 
beneath  the  green  foliage,  catching  the  inspiration 
of  rosy  health  and  elasticity.  Her  admirers  boasted 
that'as  an  athlete  and  pedestrienne  she  could  clear 
a  five-rail  Virginia  fence  at  a  single  bound. 

It  is  said  that  a  farmer's  son  of  Belpre  rented 
and  cultivated  a  field  of  corn  on  the  island,  near  the 
avenue  leading  from  house  to  river,  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  stealing  a  look  at  her  beautiful  person  as  she 
passed  by  on  her  way  to  ride  or  walk,  as  accustomed 
on  a  pleasant  day. 

Over  the  current  she  could  guide  or  propel  a 
boat,  handling  the  oars  with  forceful  skill,  always 
having  a  sable  attendant,  generally  Moses,  the  wat- 
erman, near  in  case  of  accident.  She  sometimes 
went  in  a  canoe  as  far  as  Parkersburg,  then  New- 


22  BLENNERHASSETT 

port,  and  even  up  the  Kanawha  to  Beach  Park,  the 
home  of  the  Hendersons. 

In  the  dance  room  she  was  peerless,  her  step 
light,  her  motion  graceful,  and  with  the  rapidity  and 
ease  of  thought  winding  airily  through  each  call  and 
figure,  she  was  a  favorite  in  each  set. 

*"In  conversation  she  was  ready,  versatile  and 
engaging,  being  well-read  in  the  general  literature 
of  her  day,  her  conversational  powers  were  great, 
showing  clearness  of  perception  and  critically  edi- 
fying. Her  writings  show  a  mind  of  deep  sensi- 
bilities, in  which  the  genius  of  thought  gives  finish 
and  force  to  her  sentences.  There  was  a  finish  and 
beauty  of  experience  interwoven  with  the  subject  on 
which  she  wrote,  which  created  a  corresponding 
sympathy  in  the  mind  of  the  reader."  Elsewhere, 
as  pertaining  to  sorrows  of  after  days,  is  quoted  one 
of  her  poems,  indited  while  at  Montreal,  Canada, 
She  wrote  and  subsequently  published  a  volume  en- 
titled, "Widow  of  the  Rock." 

*A  friend  of  the  family,  with  opportunity  to 
traditionally  know,  states  that  "Mrs.  Blennerhassett 
introduced  vacination  in  the  West.  During  fre- 
quent visits  to  New  York  her  children  were  vaccin- 
ated. 'She  preserved  the  virus,  invited  parents  to 
send  their  little  ones  to  the  island,  and  successfully 

"Pamphlet  of  S.  C.  Shaw. 

*Maria  P.  Wood'bridge,   in   Lippincott's  Magazine,  of  Fell). 
1879. 


ISLAND       HOME  28 

performed  the  operation.  One  of  the  children  long 
recollected  the  beautiful  Mrs.  Blennerhassett.  Ad- 
miration, love  and  respect  and  sympathy  are  felt 
for  her  as  we  follow  her  changing  life  from  happy 
gaity  to  lonely  death  in  a  New  York  garrett." 

Edenic  was  the  delightful  home  and  domestic 
happiness,  and  quiet  roseate  surroundings  of  the 
Blennerhassett  family,  and  such  a  portrayal  of  their 
appearance  and  character  till  the  dawn  of  the  year 
1805. 


AARON  BURR 

N  Newark,  New  Jersey,  fifth  November 
was   born      Aaron    Burr,    whose 


combination  with  the  owner  of  the  his- 
toric  island,  within  the  domain  of  our 

territory,  brings  his  biography  in  brief  into  our  vol- 

ume at  this  point. 

*He  entered  Princeton  College  at  12  years  of 
age  and  was  graduated  in  1772;  studied  theology 
with  a  clergyman  in  Connecticut  ;  entered  the  Conti- 
nental army  in  1775;  distinguished  himself  at  Que- 
bec, Monmouth,  New  Haven,  and  resigned,  owing 
to  ill  health  tenth  March,  1779;  studied  law  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1782;  began  practice  at 
Albany,  and  in  1783  removed  to  New  York  ;  was  a 
member  of  the  State  House  of  Representatives  in 
1784  and  1798;  Attorney  General  of  New  York  in 
1789  and  1790;  Commissioner  of  Revolutionary 
Claims  in  1791  ;  a  Democratic  U.  S.  Senator  from 
New  York,  twenty-fourth  Oct.,  1791,  to  third  March, 
1797.  At  the  Presidential  election  of  1801,  Burr  and 
Jefferson  had  each  73  electoral  votes,  and  the  House 
of  Representatives  on  the  thirtieth  ballot  chose  Jeff- 
erson President  and  Burr,  Vice-President.  In  1804 

*From  the  Directory  of  Congress. 


Aaron  Burr  and  Daughter  Theodosia 


ISLAND       HOME  25 

he  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Governor  of 
New  York  and  was  defeated  by  Morgan  Lewis  by 
8000  majority ;  mortally  wounded  Hamilton  in  a  duel 
at  Weehawken,  July  12,  1804;  after  endeavoring  to 
revolutionize  the  Mississippi  Valley,  he  was  arrested 
and  brought  to  Richmond,  where  he  was  tried  in 
August,  1807,  on  a  charge  of  treason  and  acquitted; 
to  escape  persecution  and  his  creditors,  he  went 
abroad  in  1808,  returning  to  New  York  City  in 
1812,  he  resumed  law  practice,  and  died  on  Staten 
island,  at  Port  Richmond,  Sept.  14,  1836. 

About  tenth  April,  1805,  seeking  surcease  from 
the  poignancy  of  recent  events,  and  perhaps  with  a 
determination  to  retrieve  political  heights  and  power 
by  new  evolution  and  schemes,  in  a  vague  way,  he 
wandered  West  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburg,  and 
there  arriving  about  the  thirtieth,  on  a  boat  prev- 
iously ordered  and  arranged  for,  he  descended  the 
Ohio  river.  The  craft  is  thus  described: 

M'His  boat  was  a  rude  floating  house,  or  ark, 
sixty  feet  long,  fourteen  feet  wide,  containing  four 
apartments,  a  dining  room,  a  kitchen  with  fire  place 
and  two  bed  rooms,  all  lighted  by  glass  windows, 
and  the  whole  covered  by  a  roof,  which  served  as  a 
promenade  deck.  The  cost  of  this  commodious 
structure,  to  his  astonishment,  he  found  was  only 
one  hundred,  thirty-three  dollars.  Of  propelling 
power  it  had  none,  but  merely  floated  down  the  swift 

*Parton's  Life  of  Aaron  Burr. 


26  BLENNERHASSETT 

and  winding  stream,  aided  occasionally  and  kept 
clear  of  snags  and  sand  banks  by  a  dextrous  use  of 
the  pole.  In  the  Spring  the  current  of  the  Ohio 
rushes  along  with/  surprising  swiftness,  carrying 
with  it  an  ark  or  iraft  eight  miles  an  hour.  It  would 
be  a  resistless  totrent  at  that  time  but  for  its  in- 
numerable bends.  -Along  the  whole  course  hills, 
steep,  picturesque  and  lofty,  rise  almost  from  the 
bed  of  the  river  and  pour  their  streams  headlong 
into  it,  whenever  the,  rain  falls  or  the  snow  melts. 
For  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  miles  this  most  mon- 
otously  beautiful  of  rivUrs  winds  and  coils  itself 
among  those  ever-varying  seldom-receding  hills, 
skirted  by  a.  narrow  fringe  of  bottom  land.  Those 
hills,  soon  to  be  vine-clad,  were  then  one  forest; 
those  bottoms,  now  smiling  with  farms,  or  disfigured 
by  the  shabbiest  of  towns  and  villages,  were  then 
destitute  of  inhabitants  for  hundreds  of  miles  at  a 
stretch. 

He  stopped  briefly  at  Marietta  on  the  fifth  of 
May,  to  see  the  mounds  and  antiquities  there,  with- 
in sight  of  old  Fort  Harmar.  Here  the  leading  citi- 
zens called  upon  him  to  offer  civilities  and  hospi- 
talities, as  to  one  who  had  been  honored  with  the 
high  office  of  Vice-President  of  the  Union  and  had 
filled  the  chair  so  ably  in  the  National  Senate. 

In  the  hours  of  his  stay,  doubtless,  he  had 
opportunity  to  hear  of  the  elegant  mansion,  almost 
princely,  of  the  Barrister  and  of  its  occupants,  to 


ISLAND       HOME  27 

whom  the  Ohio  Company's  settlers  were  more  than 
friendly,  even  attached,  and  to  welcome  suggestions 
to  stop  and  view  the  estate. 

Resuming  his  journey,  as  the  eviednce  appears, 
he  next,  a  few  hours  later,  could  not  pass  the  island 
without  placing  feet  on  the  soil,  and  strolling  over 
the  grounds,  in  company  with  a  Mrs.  Shaw.  Blen- 
nerhassett  was  absent,  but  upon  invitation  of  his 
ever  courteous  wife,  who  observed  the  strangers  and 
tendered  the  hospitalities  of  her  home,  entered  and 
passed  the  hours  in  conversation  'till  eleven  o'clock, 
when  Burr  re-embarked  and  proceeded  down  the 
river,  being  impressed  with  the  desirability  of  se- 
curing an  auxiliary  and  friend  in  his  absent  host, 
the  lord  of  the  manor ;  and  having  deeply  impress- 
ed his  hostess  with  his  fascinating  powers,  and  the 
splendor  of  his  official  position. 

Early  in  December  Burr  wrote  a  letter  to  Blen- 
nerhassett,  in  which  he  expressed  his  regret  at  not 
making  his  personal  acquaintance  when  accidently 
visiting  the  island,  alluded  cautiously  to  the  talents 
of  his  absent  host,  as  deserving  wider  fields  and 
greater  rewards,  and  indirectly  stimulated  him  to 
action,  and  suggested  plans  to  increase  his  fortune 
and  attain  a  more  exalted  position  of  usefulness 
and  honor. 

To  this  adroit  communication  reply  was  made, 
admitting  a  desire  to  participate  in  any  speculation 


BLENNERHASSETT 

which   might  be  presented,   as,   in   Burr's  opinion, 
worthy  to  engage  his  talents. 

"1  contemplated,"  says  he  in  his  Hrief  at  the 
Richmond  trial  thereafter,  "not  only  a  commercial 
enterprise  or  land  purchase,  but  a  military  adven- 
ture was  distinctly  mentioned  in  which  I  should 
engage.''  He  conceived  the  country  on  the  eve  of 
a  Spanish  war,  when  it  would  be  necessary  to  bring 
all  the  talents  of  the  people  into  play,  among  which 
was  Burr's,  and  under  such  considerations  was  will- 
ing to  engage  in  any  enterprise  to  subjugate  the 
dominion  of  Spain,  the  prospective  enemy  of  the 
Republic. 

Other  correspondence  followed,  and  in  August, 
1806,  with  his  accomplished  and  fascinating  daugh- 
ter, Thedosia,  wife  of  Gov.  Joseph  Alston,  of  South 
Carolina,  he  visited  a  second  time  the  island. 

Father  and  daughter  had  embarked,  with  her 
infant  son,  at  Pittsiburg,  and  near  the  close  of  the 
month  on  their  descent  the  voyagers  reached  Mar- 
ietta. It  was  General  Muster  Day,  and  as  an  hon- 
ored guest  Burr  interviewed  the  militia  and  put 
them  through  a  few  evolutions  to  the  satisfaction 
of  admiring  spectators.  In  the  eve  they  attended  a 
ball  and  completely  conquered  all,  he  by  courtly 
grace  and  manners,  and  Thedosia,  by  the  magnetism 
of  her  beauty  and  the  flash  of  her  feminine  witti- 
cisms. 

This  interview  and  stay  at  the  island  is  graphi- 


ISLAND       HOME  29 

cally  described  in  its  effects  by  the  eloquent  William 
Wirt : 

"A  shrubbery,  which  Shenstone  might  have  en- 
vied, blooms  around  him ;  music  that  might  have 
charmed  Calypso  and  her  nymphs,  is  his ;  an  ex- 
tensive library  spreads  its  treasures  before  him ;  a 
philosophical  apparatus  offers  to  him  all  the  mys- 
teries and  secrets  of  nature;  peace,  tranquility  and 
innocence  shed  their  mingled  delights  around  him ; 
and,  to  crown  the  enchantment  of  the  scene,  a  wife 
who  is  said  to  be  lovely  beyond  her  sex  and  graced 
with  every  accomplishment  that  can  render  it  ir- 
resistable,  has  blessed  him  with  her  love  and  made 
him  the  father  of  her  children.  The  evidence  would 
convince  you  that  this  is  only  a  faint  picture  of  real 
life.  In  the  midst  of  all  this  peace,  this  innocence, 
thjs  tranquility,  this  feast  of  mind,  this  pure  ban- 
quet of  the  heart,  the  destroyer  comes.  He  comes 
to  turn  this  paradise  into  a  hell ;  yet  the  flowers  do 
not  wither  at  his  approach,  and  no  monitory  shud- 
dering, through  the  bosom  of  their  unfortunate  pos- 
sessor, warns  him  of  the  ruin  that  is  coming  upon 
him.  A  stranger  presents  himself;  introduced  to 
their  civilities  by  the  high  rank  he  had  lately  held 
in  his  country,  he  soon  finds  way  to  their  hearts  by 
the  dignity  and  elegance  of  his  demeanor,  the  light 
and  beauty  of  his  conversation  and  the  seductive 
and  fascinating  power  of  his  address.  The  conquest 
was  not  a  difficult  one.  Innocence  is  ever  simple 


30  BLENNERHASSETT 

and  credulous ;  conscious  of  no  design  itself,  it  ex- 
pects none  in  others;  every  door  and  portal  of  the 
heart  are  thrown  open  and  all  who  choose  it,  enter. 
Such  was  the  state  of  Eden  when  the  serpent  en- 
tered its  bowers.  The  prisoner  in  a  more  engaging 
form,  winding  himself  into  the  open  and  unprac- 
ticed  heart  of  Blennerhassett  found  but  little  diffi- 
culty in  changing  the  native  character  of  that  heart 
and  the  object  of  its  affections.  By  degrees  he  in- 
fuses into  it  the  poison  of  his  own  ambition ;  he 
breathes  into  it  the  fire  of  his  own  courage ;  a  dar- 
ing and  desperate  thirst  for  glory ;  an  ardor  panting 
for  all  the  storms  and  bustle  and  hurricane  of  life. 
In  a  short  time  the  whole  man  is  changed ;  and  every 
object  of  his  former  delight  is  relinquished.  No 
more  he  enjoys  the  tranquil  scene ;  it  has  become  flat 
and  insipid  to  his  taste.  His  books  are  abandoned; 
his  retort  and  crucible  thrown  aside ;  his  shrubbery 
blooms  and  breathes  its  fragrance  upon  the  air  in 
vain — he  likes  it  not ;  his  ear  no  longer  drinks  the 
melody  of  music — it  longs  for  the  trumpets  clangour 
and  the  cannon's  roar.  Even  the  prattle  of  his 
babes,  once  so  sweet,  no  longer  affects  him,  and 
the  angel  smile  of  his  wife,  who  hitherto  touched 
his  bosom  with  ecstacy  so  unspeakable,  is  now  un- 
felt  for  and  unseen.  Greater  objects  have  taken 
possession  of  his  soul ;  his  imagination  has  been 
dazzled  by  visions  of  diadems,  and  stars,  and  gar- 
ters, and  titles  of  nobility — he  has  been  taught  to 


ISLAND       HOME  31 

,burn,    with    restless    emulation,    at    the    names    of 
Cromwell,  Caesar  and  Bonaparte." 

Theodosia,  with  womanly  tact,  won  her  way, 
and  with  her  father's  desire  for  adventure  and  an 
imperial  elevation,  infused  the  same  spirit  and  hopes 
into  the  heart  of  Margaret,  and  they  were  dream- 
ers together,  and  constructed  their  castles  while 
active  preparations  began  in  earnest  for  the  fitting 
out  of  some  mysterious  expedition. 

The  month  of  September  was  full  of  activity, 
ardor  and  preparation  for  the  great  consumation  of 
something  yet  not  distinctly  revealed.  Burr  and 
Blennerhassett  proceeded  to  the  counting  house  of 
Dudley,  \Yoodbridge  &  Co.,  of  Marietta,  in  which 
firm  Blennerhassett  was  a  partner,  and  ordered  the 
building  of  boats  and  purchase  of  a  quantity  of  pro- 
visions. The  batteaux  were  to  be  15.  ten  of  which 
were  to  be  40  feet  long  and  five  of  50  feet  length, 
and  all  10  feet  wide  and  2  1-2  feet  deep,  and  after 
the  Schenectedy  model,  such  as  were  in  use  on  the 
Mohawk  river.  The  conveyance  capacity  of  this 
flotilla  was  to  be  500  men.  A  separate  keel-boat. 
60  feet  long  was  to  be  constructed  for  arms,  ammu- 
nition and  provisions.  One  of  the  larger  boats  was 
to  be  fitted  up  in  better  style  for  the  family  of  the 
leaders.  It  was  to  have  separate  rooms,  fire  place 
and  glass  windows  at  the  sides.  The  provisions 
were  to  cost  $2,000  and  the  boats  a  like  sum. 

The  contract  to  build,  at  his  boat-yard,  seven 


BLENNERHASSETT 


miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum,  was 
given  to  Col.  Jos.  Barker,  who  had  erected  the 
island  mansion.  They  were  to  be  delivered  Qth 
December.  The  expedition  provisions  were  'to  be 
pork,  bacon,  flour,  kiln-dried  meal,  whiskey  and 
smaller  articles. 

With  definite  understanding  then  Burr  and  his 
aid  parted.  During  the  period  of  absence  Blenner- 
hassett  was  intensely  busy  near  his  residence  and 
old  social  haunts  overseeing  and  urging  forward 
the  building  of  the  boats,  the  purchase  and  storage 
of  provisions,  and  drying  in  many  kilns  corn  upon 
his  island  and  soliciting  recruits. 

To  some  young  men  he  stated  the  object  was 
to  settle  Western  lands  ;  to  others  that  the  destina- 
tion was  Mexico,  saying  that  undoubtedly  there 
would  arise  war  with  Spain.  He  wrote  a  series  of 
essays  and  published  them  in  a  Marietta  paper  over 
the  signature  "Querist,"  showing  that  the  Western 
country  would  be  advantaged  by  a  separation  from 
the  Atlantic  States.  Such  views,  it  must  be  admit- 
ted, were  prevalent,  largely  in  Kentucky  and  over 
the  entire  West,  and  were  not  considered  treason- 
able. The  essays  were  answered  under  the  signa- 
ture "Regulus,"  from  the  pen  of  Jared  Mansfield, 
U.  S.  Surveyor,  appointed  by  President  Jefferson. 

W/hile  these  operations  were  going  forward 
under  the  propulsion  of  Blennerhassett,  Burr  for 
recruits  and  perfection  of  general  plans,  went  to 


ISLAND       HOME  33 

Chillicot'he,  Cincinnati,  Kentucky  and  Nashville.  At 
the  latter  town  he  contracted  to  build  six  boats,  on 
the  Cumberland,  and  deposited  $4,000  with  General 
Jackson  to  pay  for  them.  He  also  contracted  to 
purchase  4,000  acres  of  land  on  the  Washita,  a 
branch  of  the  Red  river,  for  $40,000,  and  paid  there- 
on $5,000.  The  settlement  of  a  colony  upon  these 
lands  was  represented  to  be  the  sole  object  of  the 
proposed  expedition. 

Then  Comfort  Taylor,  of  New  York,  was  re- 
cruiting men  and  collecting  supplies  at  Pittsburg, 
with  which  he  was  to  embark  upon  several  boats 
at  that  point  and  join  the  Blennerhassett  fleet  at 
the  island.  Daniel  Floyd,  of  Indiana  Territory,  was 
similarly  employed  near  the  Falls  ,of  the  Ohio,  and 
was  to  connect  with  the  fleet  when  it  came  down. 

In  October,  Theodosia  was  joined  by  her  hus- 
band, the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  who  was 
drifting  into  the  enterprise,  and  they  with  Blenner- 
hassett left  the  island  in  charge  of  Margaret  and 
visited  Lexington,  Kentucky. 

The  arrangement  was  to  rendezvous  Novem- 
ber ist;  to  leave  the  Ohio  Falls  by  the  I5th  with 
500  to  1,000  men;  to  be  in  Natchez,  Miss.,  from  the 
5th  to  the  middle  of  December  to  meet  General 
Wilkinson. 

In  1787,  then  a  citizen  of  the  Kentucky  section 
of  Virginia,  Wilkinson  had  loaded  a  boat  with  flour 
and  tobacco  and  descended  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 


34  BLENNERHASSETT 

rivers  with  the  "ostensible  purpose  of  making  ar- 
rangements with  the  Spanish  authorities  by  which 
to  secure  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  upper  country  a 
free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  a  market  for 
their  produce."* 

In  consequence  of  these  semi-military  and 
scarcely  concealed  operations  and  movements,  ru- 
mors followed  each  other  in  rapid  succession,  on 
both  sides  of  the  river  in  the  vicinity  of  the  island. 

Early  in  October,  1806,  there  was  a  mass  meet- 
ing of  citizens  in  Wood  county,  expressive  of  alarm 
for  the  safety  of  the  country,  by  accumulating  evi- 
dence of  the  complicity  of  Burr  and  Blennerhassett 
in  a  mysterious  and  many  believed  treasonable  de- 
sign. The  cause  of  their  apprehension  proceeded 
fiom  a  partial  revelation  of  the  objects  of  the  expe- 
dition, to  some  of  his  more  intimate  acquaintances, 
by  Blennerhassett,  and  to  whom  also  he  had  made  a 
secret  acknowledgment  o'f  the  authorship  of  "Quer- 
ist." 

The  public  meeting,  as  appears  from  manuscript 
papers  once  held  by  a  prominent  lawyer  and  actor 
in  the  agitation  of  the  popular  mind,  and  now  pre- 
served by  'descendants  of  a  pioneer  family  in  Mason 
county,  was  united  in  its  action  and  thoroughly 
patriotic  in  its  motives  and  declarations.  The  pro- 
ceedings read : 

"At  an  assemblage  of  a  number  of  citizens,  at 

"Opinion  29  Oct.  1807 


ISLAND       HOME  35 

the  Court  House  of 'Wood  county,  for  the  purpose 
of  taking  into  consideration  Burr's  Expedition,  Col. 
Hugh  Phelps  was  appointed  Chairman,  and  James 
G.  Laidley,  Secretary. 

Among  others  present  appeared  Alexander  Hen- 
derson, Peter  Anderson,  Robert  Kincheloe,  Thomas 
Tavenner,  James  Compton  and  many  others. 

The  object  of  the  call  was  briefly  and  suc- 
cinctly stated  by  the  chair  to  be  to  take  steps  to 
protect  the  honor  and  safety  of  the  settlers  and 
their  property,  and  to  cause  every  person  friendly 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  express 
their  attachment  thereto.  The  situation  was  ex- 
ceedingly alarming  and  instant  action  is  incumbent. 
Hostility  to  peace  and  good  order  was  being  mani- 
fested, and  it  is  for  you,  gentlemen  of  the  new 
county,  to  determine  a  course  of  proceedure. 

On  motion,  it  was,  without  dissent,  resolved, 
that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  draft  and  to  re- 
port forthwith  resolutions  expressive  of  strong 
disapprobation  to  the  plan  laid  down  by  many  am- 
bitious characters,  and  that  a  volunteer  company 
be  raised  to  protect  our  county. 

The  chair  selected  Alexander  Henderson,  James 
Wilson,  Jacob  Beeson,  Hugh  Phelps,  George  Creel, 
Jr.,  John  G.  Henderson,  Robert  Kincheloe,  James 
G.  Laidley,  Thomas  Tavenner,  Reece  Woolf,  Wil- 
liam Beauchamp,  George  Creel  and  James  H.  Neal. 

W'hile  the  gentlemen  selected  were  in  council 


36  BLENNERHASSETT 

discussing  a  course  of  action  and  framing  proper 
wording,  speeches  were  made  by  various  persons 
present.  Great  diversity  of  opinion  was  had  as  to 
extent  of  guilt  of  those  suspected,  and  the  object  of 
the  movements  on  the  island,  yet  there  was  unan- 
imity as  to.  necessity  for  a  prompt  and  military 
course. 

On  return  to  the  body  of  the  court  room,  the 
following  was  reported  by  those  delegated  to  ad- 
vise, and  without  disagreement  adopted  as  the  views 
of  every  one  present : 

"Resolved,  by  the  Committee  appointed  by  the 
Citizens  of  Wood  County,  that  met  this  6th  day  of 
October,  1806,  for  the  purpose  of  deliberating  on 
the  measures  necessary  to  be  adopted  in  this  Alarm- 
ing Crisis  to  Counteract  what  is  supposed  to  be 
the  ambitious  and  disorganizing  views  of  Aaron 
Burr  and  his  Parisans  in  this  Western  Country: 

"i.  That  it  is  expedient  that  the  Citizens  of 
Wood  County  should  without  delay  form  them- 
selves into  a  Volunteer  corps  or  body  of  men, 
in  order  to  train  tihemselves  to  Arms  and  Military 
discipline  for  the  purpose  of  Defending  themselves 
and  their  property  from  any  Threatened  Attack 
and  Repelling  any  Aggression  that  may  be  At- 
tempted by  any  Insurgents  inimical  to  the  Inter- 
ests of  the  United  States,  until  some  more  effective 
measures  can  be  adopted  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  That  to  effect  this  laudable  pur- 
pose, it  is  Recommended  that  six  subscription  pap- 
ers be  immediately  drafted  and  handed  around  the 
County,  in  order  to  Procure  Subscribers  to  the 


37 


same,  enrolling  themselves  in  the  said  Body.  And 
that  it  is  proper  that  a  meeting  should  be  held  of 
the  said  persons  enlisting  themselves  as  aforesaid, 
at  the  Court  House  of  Wood  County,  on  the  nth 
day  of  this  present  month,  for  the  purpose  of  Choosr- 
ing  by  ballot  Proper  Officers  to  command  the  said 
Corps  and  adopt  Proper  rules  and  Regulations  for 
their  future  Conduct. 

"And  that  the  Colonel  of  tihe  ii3th  Regiment 
of  Virginia  Militia  be  requested  to  use  the  most 
effective  means  to  collect  the  Public  Arms  of  said 
Regiment  and  have  them  forthcoming  at  the  Court 
House  of  this  county  on  the  nth  day  of  this  present 
month  ;  and  also  that  the  persons  appointed  to  'hand 
around  the  said  Subscription  papers  should  request 
the  subscribers  to  their  respective  papers  to  volun- 
teer in  bringing  forward  any  private  arms  they 
may  be  in  possession  of  at  the  said  time. 

"Resolved,  that  Alexander  Henderson,  Peter 
Anderson,  Robert  Kincheloe,  Thomas  Tavenner, 
James  Compton  and  James  G.  Laidley  are  proper 
persons  to  be  appointed  to  hand  around  the  said 
Subscription  papers. 

"Resolved,  that  a  Copy  of  the  Proceedings  of 
this  Committee  be  forwarded  to  the  Printer  of 
the  Ohio  and  Monongalia  Gazettes,  to  be  printed 
an  their  respective  newspapers,  and  that  a  printed 
Copy  of  said  Pioceedings  be  forwarded  with  as 
much  expedition  as  possible  to  the  Executive  of  Hie 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States. 

Resolved,  that  a  Permanent  Committee  of  five 
persons  be  appointed  to  Regulate  the  proceedings 
necessary  to  be  pursued  during  the  existence  of 
danger,  and  that  said  Committee  or  a  majority  of 

447996 


38  BLENNERHASSETT 

them  should  meet  whenever  an  emergency  may 
seem  to  them  to  require  it ;  and  that  the  said  Com- 
mittee be  empowered  to  call  meetings  of  the  citi- 
zens of  Wood  County;  and  that  Col.  H.  Phelps, 
Robert  Kinclieloe,  Jacob  Beeson,  Alexander  Hen- 
derson and  George  Creel,  Jr.,  are  considered  as  fit 
persons  to  compose  said  Committee. 

"Resolved,  that  it  is  incumbent  a  permanent 
Secretary  should  be  appointed  to  said  committee, 
and  that  James  Wilson  is  a  fit  person  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

"Resolved,  that  the  foregoing  resolutions  are 
founded  on  a  firm  attachment  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  adopted  in  support  of  the 
Liberties  guaranteed  to  us  by  the  same,  submitting 
ourselves  always  to  the  Constituted  authorities." 

VOLUNTEER  ENROLLMENT. 

Pursuant  to  Resolutions  submitted  to  the  con- 
sideration of  Sundry  Citizens  of  Wood  County  on 
the  6th  day  of  October,  1806,  and  adopted,  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  alarming  situation  of  existing 
affairs  in  this  Western  Country  render  it  imme- 
diately and  essentially  necessary  for  every  true 
friend  to  his  country,  in  support  of  that  Constitution 
and  of  that  Government  for  which  our  fore-fathers 
have  bled,  and  having  gained  under  which  them- 
selves and  their  children  have  so  long  happily  lived, 
to  adopt  measures  of  defense  against  the  views  of 
any  ambitious  and  disorganizing  Demagogues  in- 
imical to  the  interests  of  the  same ;  for  which  pur- 
pose the  Citizens  of  Wood  County,  in  conformity 


ISLAND       HOME 


39 


thereto,  are  expected  to  come  forward  upon  this 
occasion  by  subscribing  their  names  to  this  paper 
to  form  themselves  into  a  Volunteer  independent 
Corps,  to  effect  said  purposes,  until  some  more  effec- 
tive steps  for  our  safety  can  be  taken  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 


Robert  Kinc'heloe, 
William  Prince, 
Hubbard  Prince, 
John  Johnson, 
Peter  McCaul, 
Samuel  Allen, 
John  Gibbins, 
John  Carpenter, 
James  Melrose, 
William  Hill, 
Ximrod  Saunders, 
David  Creel, 
Henry  Thornton, 
Henry  Gillaspie, 
Thomas  Creel, 
Elijah  ['helps, 
Geo.  Ruble, 
Leonard  Caplinger. 
James  Dutton, 
Richard  Lee, 
Bennett  Williams, 

John  0. 
Robert  Wells. 
W.  Minor. 
Robert  Shanklin, 
Richard  Arnold, 

David 
Charles  Murphey, 


William  D.  Bayley, 
Edward  McPherson, 
Lawrence  King", 
Levi  Barton, 
Thomas  Thornton, 
John  Caplinger, 
Daniel  Brown, 
Willis  Owens, 
William  Gillaspie, 
William  Dixon, 
Francis  Tierney, 
Elijah  McDonale, 
William  Melrose, 
James  Beaby, 
Robert  Page, 
Henry  Lord, 
James  Lord* 
Jeptha  Kincheloe, 
Alexander  Creel, 
Joseph  King. 
John  Gillaspie, 
Henderson, 
Jeremiah  Brown, 
James  Ringlesby, 
Jorisha  Smavvler, 
Joseph  Johnson. 
Rawson, 
Thomas  Tavenncr, 


40 


Benniah  Badgeley, 
Thomas  Leachman, 
Adam  Ruble, 
Polser  Ruble, 
Philip  Harter, 
Christopher  Coonrod, 
John  Badgeley, 
Robert  Edelen, 
Harrison  Sursons, 
John  Spur.lock, 
Elijah  Rockhole, 
Walter  Coe, 
Geo.  Dunlevyi 
Jedra  Darbv, 
Thos.  Gilrason, 
Peter  Jett, 
William  Langfitt, 
William  Dyar, 
James  Cunningham, 

Z. 

James  Gillespie, 
James  Melrose,  Jr., 
Robert  Triplett, 
Thomas  Thorfiton, 
Sylvester  Ward,  Jr., 
Rezin  Barnes, 
John  Owens, 
Jacob  Beeson, 
George  Creel, 
Daniel  Rowell, 
John  Stephenson, 
James  G.  Laidley, 
Thomas  James, 
Hugh  Phelps, 
Wm.  Weedon, 


Peter  Hannaman, 
John  V.  Browne, 
James  Gibson, 
James  Ward, 
John  Pugh, 
Charles  Paw, 
John  Drake, 
Asahel  Wilkinson, 
E.  McFarlane, 
George  Jacobson, 
Joel  Woolf, 
Peter  McCall, 
John  Carpenter, 
Samuel  Coe, 
John  T.  Langfitt, 
William  Sinclair, 
Andrew  F.  Dyar, 
John  Coe, 
John  Barns, 
Bockorees, 

Reece  Woolf, 
John  Neal, 
James  Wilson, 
J.   C.   Griffin, 
Joseph  Cook, 
Joseph  Spencer, 
Timothy  Darling, 
Elijah  Moss, 
James  Foley,  Jr., 
Moses  Pilcher, 
Andrew  Davidson, 
William  Enoch, 
James  H.  Neal, 
Walker  Turner, 
Elias  Gates, 


ISLAND       HOME 


41 


Yates  S.  Cornwell, 
Allen  Davis, 
Nehemiah  Lewis, 
Henry  Woodyard, 
Jesse  Woodyard, 
J.  A.  Murdough, 
Tunis  Dils, 
Philip  Dils, 
Peter  Dils, 
Stephen  N.  Wilson, 
Walter  Coe, 
William  Eaton, 
Haley  Rice, 
John  Trevin, 
Thomas  Dye, 
James  Henderson, 
John  Dils, 
Henry  Dils, 
John  Heany, 
Francis  Langfitt, 
Robert  Barnes, 
George  Creel,  Jr., 
J.  G.  Henderson, 


Chas.  Rockhold, 
Jacob  Tr umbo, 
Jacob  Shry, 
John  James, 
Bennett  Cook, 
Edward  Coe, 
Elias  Barnes, 
Elijah  Barnes, 
Elias  Davis, 
William  Davis, 
Elias  Hickman, 
Martin  Bailey, 
James  Davis, 
Shepherd  Oonwell, 
Edward  Gambrill, 
Lewis  Gregory, 
Thomas  Fais, 
Alexander  Henderson, 

of  Alex'r, 
David  Owl, 
Frederick  Cradlebaugh, 
Jacob  Owl, 


Isaac  Smalley. 

Mrs.  Blennerhassett,  hearing  of  the  meeting  at 
Newport,  and  being  informed  that  a  battalion  of 
three  companies,  under  command  of  Col.  Hugh 
Phelps,  were  then  mustering  at  the  Point,  intending 
to  make  descent  that  eve  to  burn  the  mansion  and 
seize  the  Kiln-dried  corn,  despatched  Peter  Taylor 
to  Kentucky  to  inform  her  husband  of  the  danger 
which  menaced  him  and  his  property. 

"On  his  way  home  he  called  on  Dr.  Bennett,  of 
Mason  County,  to  get  more  information  and  pro- 


42  BLENNERHASSETT 

cure  aid  in  case  of  attack,  and  protested  the  inno- 
cence of  his  designs." 

He  then  wrote  as  follows:* 

WOOD  COUNTY,  3  NOV.  1806. 
COLONEL  PHELPS: 

Dear  Sir — Just  returned  home  after  a  journey 
of  seven  hundred  miles.  I  hasten  to  express  to 
you  the  satisfaction  with  w'hich  I  learned,  on  the 
road,  that  you  had  been  invested  with  the  com- 
mand of  the  two  volunteer  companies  that  had  been 
raised  in  the  county  during;  my  absence,  as  that 
circumstance  afforded  me  a  sure  guarantee  against 
the  idle  reports  I  had  heard  of  any  misguided  vio- 
lence intended  by  my  neighbors,  against  my  family 
or  property,  while  I  was  not  on  the  ground  to  de- 
fend them. 

But  t'he  information  my  wife  has  given  me  of 
the  purport  of  the  friendly  message,  (of  protection, 
Sec.,}  you  sent  me,  at  a  time  when  you  thought  it 
would  be  expedient,  has  laid  me  under  personal  ob- 
ligations to  you,  and  rendered  it  a  duty  with  me  to 
endeavor  to  revive  our  former  neighborly  inter- 
course, especially  at  a  season  when  so  much  mis- 
conception misleads  the  people,  propogated,  as  I 
have  no  doubt  I  can  satisfy  you,  by  your  enemies 
and  their  own,  when  I  shall  have  the  pleasure  oi 
an  hour's  unreserved  conversation  with  you,  an 
which  I  expect  I  can  make  you  some  proposition 
that  will  engage  your  attention  and  be  'serviceable 
to  your  best  interests.  I  therefore  embrace  the 
earliest  opportunity  of  soliciting  an  interview  with 
you,  and,  in  consideration  of  my  fatigue,  I  take  the 

*Safford's  Blennerhassett  papers,  p.  149. 


ISLAND       HOME  43 

liberty  of  requesting  to  see  you  this  evening,  and 
accept  a  bed  with  us,  or  if  that  should  be  incon- 
venient to  you,  I  shall  do  myself  the  pleasure  of  at- 
tending any  appointment  you  may  designate  for 
tomorrow. 

I  am,  dear  sir,  your  obliged  and  obedient  ser- 
vant, 

HARMAN   BLENNERHASSETT. 

REPLY. 

NEWPORT,  NOV.  6,  1806. 
HARMAN   BLENNERHASSETT, 

Dear  Sir:  From  circumstances  of  business,  it 
was  out  of  my  power  to  attend  at  Ool.  Gushing' s 
so  early  as  my  appointment.  A  short  time  after 
you  left  there  I  went  over  and  found  a  note  re- 
questing me  to  wait  upon  you  this  day.  I  am 
sorry  that  from  similar  circumstances,  I  'Shall  not 
be  able  to  comply ;  but  if  you  should  be  at  home, 
I  shall  do  myself  the  pleasure  to  wait  upon  you  to- 
morrow. 

Your  Obt.  Serv't, 

HUGH  PHELPS. 

Col.  Phelps,  having  visited  Blennerhassett  ac- 
cording to  appointment,  the  latter  thanked  him  for 
informing  his  wife  of  rumors  afloat,  and  the  meas- 
ures adopted  to  meet  the  designs  of  himself  and 
associates.  He  affected,  however,  to  ridicule  re- 
ports heard  of  the  injuries  threatened  his  family,  and 
suggested  that  he  suspected  the  other  party  in  the 
country,  under  the  influence  of  the  Hendersons,  was 
becoming  so  strong  that  its  leaders  would  probably 


44  BLENNERHASSETT 


overturn  the  Colonel's  interest,  on  which  they  had 
hitherto  depended  for  whatever  popularity  they  had 
acquired,  and  cautioned  the  Colonel  against  any 
coalition  or  co-operation  they  might  seek  with  him, 
in  existing  clamor  or  suspicion  against  the  views 
or  intentions  of  Aaron  Burr,  or  his  friends,  which  the 
past  conduct  of  the  Hendersons  toward  him  should 
induce  him  to  avoid. 

Col.  Phel-ps,  in  reply,  complained  much  of  the 
ill  treatment  he  had  received  from  the  Hendersons. 

Blennerhassett  stated  his  concern  with  Aaron 
Bifrr  in  the  land  purchase;  that  he  solicited  or  in- 
vited no  person  to  join  in  the  emigration,  though 
many  had  voluntarily  offered  to  do  so ;  but  added 
that  if  the  Colonel  wished  a  concern  for  himself  or 
his  friends,  he  might  look  to  the  example  of  General 
Jackson  and  others  of  distinction,  who,  Blennerhas- 
s_tt  understood  were  going  to  join  in  the  settlement 
with  many  associates ;  that  as  to  rumors,  &c.,  circu- 
lated of  Colonel  Burr,  or  his  friends,  accusing  them 
of  engaging  in  anything  against  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  such  were  wholly  groundless ;  but 
that  it  was  not  unlikely  that  the  proximity  of  the 
purchase  to  the  country  where  an  engagement  had 
already  taken  place,  or  might  soon  be  expected  be- 
tween General  Wilkinson  and  the  Spaniards,  would 
engage  Colonel  Burr  and  his  friends  in  some  of  the 
early  adventures  of  the  war ;  General  Jackson  having 
already  prepared  to  march  with  one  thousand  or 


ISLAND       HOME  45 

fifteen  hundred  of  his  Tennessee  Militia,  whenever 
he  should  think  himself  authorized  by  the  orders 
and  wishes  of  the  Government  to  put  that  body  in 
motion. 

Colonel  Phelps  received  the  information  by  de- 
clining to  embark  himself,  on  account  of  his  family 
and  the  unsettled  state  of  his  affairs,  but  said  that  he 
had  no  doubt  many  young  men  of  Wood  county 
would  be  glad  to  go  with  Blennerhassett,  to  whom 
he  would  recommend  the  speculation  as  he  might 
have  opportunities.'' 

Soon  after  this  episode  Burr  joined  Blennerhas- 
sett for  a  conference  as  to  plans  and  their  execution, 
and  soon  left. 

From  the  vicinity  of  Newport,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Little  Kanawha,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio, 
where  the  commotion  was  becoming  alarming,  and 
approval  or  censure  directed  upon  the  movement  as 
each  believed  it  patriotic  and  justifiable  or  other- 
wise, reports  went  to  Washington,  to  Richmond  and 
to  Ohio's  Capital  at  Chillicothe.  Based  upon  these, 
perhaps,  the  President  sent  a  confidential  agent, 
John  Graham,  Secretary  of  Orleans  Territory,  west 
to  discover  and  reveal  the  situation.  Arriving  at 
Marietta  about  the  middle  of  November,  he  met  and 
interviewed  along  with  others,  Blennerhassett,  who, 
upon  being  questioned,  was  impressed  that  he  was 
conversing  with  a  confederate  and  disclosed  all  he 
knew  as  to  Burr's  plans.  Graham  undeceived  him, 


46 


stated  the  character  of  such  an  expedition  to  be 
objectionable  and  might  be  a  violation  of  law  and 
treaties,  and  endeavored  in  vain  to  persuade  Blen- 
nerhassett  to  withdraw. 

Thence  information  was  sought  at  Newport  and 
lielpre,  and  Graham  thereafter  went  to  Chillicothe, 
where  the  Ohio  Legislature  was  in  session,  and 
held  interviews  with  its  leaders  and  the  Executive. 
Governor  Tiffin  presented  the  situation  by  message. 
The  Legislature  considered  the  subject  with  closed 
doors,  and  passed  an  act  to  enable  the  Executive 
to  suppress  or  defeat  the  alleged  reprehensible 
scheme  and  expedition.  Under  this  authority  the 
Militia  of  the  adjacent  townships  were  ordered  out 
under  the  command  of  Major  Generall  Buell,  with 
instructions  to  seize  the  flotilla  built  upon  the  Mus- 
kingum,  and  stores  collected  at  Marietta,  and  all 
boats  of  suspicious  character  descending  the  river. 

On  the  27th  of  November,  1806,  President  Jeff- 
erson issued  his  pronunciamento,  alleging  "that  un- 
lawful enterprises  were  on  foot  in  the  Western 
States,  having  for  their  object  a  military  expedition 
against  the  dominion  of  Spain,  that  for  this  purpose 
sundry  citizens  of  the  United  States  were  fitting  out 
and  arming  vessels  in  the  Western  waters,  collecting 
provisions,  arms  and  military  stores,  and  seducing 
honest  and  well  meaning  citizens,  under  various  pre- 
tenses, to  participate  in  said  criminal  enterprises, 
warning  all  persons  engaged  therein  to  withdraw 


ISLAND       HOME  47 

from  the  same  without  delay,  as  they  will  answer 
the  same  at  their  peril  and  incur  prosecution  with 
all  the  rigors  of  the  law;  and  commanding  all  offi- 
cers, civil  and  military,  to  use  their  utmost  exer- 
tions to  bring  the  offending  persons  to  punishment. 
Neither  the  name  of  Burr  nor  accomplices  were 
mentioned. 

On  the  /th  of  December  Comfort  Tyler  and 
Israel  Taylor,  from  Beaver,  Pennsylvania,  arrived  on 
the  island  with  4  boats  and  about  32  men,  and  at 
that  point  all  was  confusion  and  expectation. 

Blennerhassett  addressed  and  sent  by  special 
envoy  the  following  note  to  the  boat  contractor: 

Wood  County,  Dec.  9,  1805. 
Col.  Barker: 

Dear  Sir — I  have  immediate  occasion  for  so 
many  of  the  boats  as  are  caulked  and  paid.  I 
wish  you  therefore  to  forward  them  by  Capt.  Elliott 
and  Mr.  Dean  to  this  place  without  waiting  a  mo- 
ment for  their  covers,  w'hich  we  intend  to  finish 
ourselves,  or  on  the  way  with  the  assistance  of  Col. 
Tyler's  men  and  our  own.  You  will  forward,  'how- 
ever, such  of  the  materials  as  are  got  ready  for 
completing  the  coverings,  and  make  out  your  bill 
accordingly.  For  such  of  the  boats  as  I  cannot 
have  here  by  tomorrow  morning,  Mr.  D.  Wood- 
bridge  and  myself  will  make  such  arrangements  as 
will  be  agreeable  to  you.  You  perceive  I  wish  you 
to  drop  working  on  my  family  boat,  which  how- 
ever I  wish  you  afterwards  to  get  ready  in  the  most 
comfortable  manner,  for  my  wife  and  children — of 


48  BLENNERHASSETT 

whom  some  of  my  friends  will  take  charge  to  fol- 
low on  with   the  utmost  expedition. 
I  am,  Dear  Sir,  Yours,  &c., 

HARMAN   BLENNERHASSETT. 
To  Col.  Barker  by  Mr.  Jas.  Dean. 

In  anticipation  of  the  departure  of  the  flotilla, 
he  addressed  another  letter  to  his  friend  and  coun- 
selor, James  Wilson,  to  be  presented  by  his  wife  sub- 
sequently: 

December   io,   1806 

Dear  Sir — As  circumstances  render  it  improb- 
able you  can  soon  hear  from  me,  I  request  you  to 
tend  the  earliest  attention  to  the  completing  of  a 
proper  inventory  of  all  the  effects  I  leave  here,  and 
also  to  the  recording  of  the  deed  I  entrusted  to 
your  care,  which  I  think  should  be  accompanied 
with  an  affidavit  stating  that  it  was  delivered  to  you 
to  be  recorded  the  last  December  court  which  was 
not  done  for  want  of  a  court.  I  rely  upon  your 
honor  and  friendship  in  this  and  every  other  par- 
ticular relating  to  much  of  my  interest  as  you  have 
professionally  taken  charge  of. 

I  iliave  amicably  settled  my  difference  with  D. 
Woodbridge,  just  as  he  will  explain  to  you.  My 
other  business  I  trust  in  your  care  will  be  lucrative 
though  not  I  flatter  myself  to  the  extent  of  better 
service  I  sincerely  believe  I  shall  hereafter  be  able 
to  render  you. 

With  hearty  good  washes  for  your  prosperity 
and  the  happiness  of  your  family,  I  am,  dear  Wil- 
son, 

Your  sincere  friend, 

HARMAN  BLENNERHASSETT. 


ISLAND       HOME  49 

Of  the  fifteen  boats  contracted  for  on  the  Mus- 
kingum,  only  eleven  were  completed,  and  it  was  in- 
tended to  deliver  them  on  the  tenth,  but  the  day 
before  they  were  seized  by  a  detachment  of  six  or 
eight  of  the  militia,  with  all  the  provisions  stored 
at  Marietta. 

Nearly  all  the  recruits  had  been  attracted  to 
the  enterprise  under  an  impression  that  its  character 
was  untainted  by  disloyalty,  indeed  favored  by  the 
National  Government,  and  that  they  might  have  to 
fight,  only  in  case  of  war  with  Spain,  but  the  activity 
of  State  authorities  and  the  military  seizure  con- 
vinced them  of  their  error,  and  Blennerhassett  found 
himself  deserted  by  the  substantial  portion  of  those 
he  had  pledged  to  the  expedition,  and,  doubtless, 
but  for  the  ambition,  pride  and  intervention  of  his 
wife,  would  have  also  abandoned  it.  Some  of  the 
younger  men  were  not  so  ready  to  desert  the  cause. 
At  the  fireside  of  a  neighbor  in  I'elpre,  a  party 
assembled,  and  decided  by  strategy  and  force  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  to  liberate  the  boats  then  in 
custody  of  the  authorities  on  the  Muskirogum.  As 
they  were  in  the  act  of  untying  the  boats  a  sentinel 
observed  their  purpose  and  sounded  the  alarm. 
Nevertheless,  persisting  in  their  efforts,  a  struggle 
ensued  without  arms,  for  possession  of  the  boats  as 
they  drifted  out  toward  the  center  of  the  stream. 
By  this  time  all  but  one  were  retaken  by  the  militia, 


50  BLENNERHASSETT 

and  in  this  captured  one  the  ardent  youth  returned 
down  the  Ohio  to  their  homes. 

The  Buell  militia  are  thus  facetiously  described 
by  Judge  \V.  H.  Safford  in  his  well  written  volume. 

"A  warlike  array  of  undisciplined  militia,  with 
cannon,  necessary  equipage  and  arms,  stationed 
themselves  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  to  cut  off 
the  forces  tpcpected  from  above.  Many  amusing 
jokes  were  played  off  at  the  expense  of  the  raw  re- 
cruits during  this  campaign ;  such  as  setting  an 
empty  tar  barrel  on  fire  and  placing  it  in  an  old  boat 
or  raft  of  logs,  to  float  by  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night.  The  sentinels,  after  duly  hailing  and  re- 
ceiving no  answer,  would  fire  a  shot  to  enforce  their 
command ;  but  still  dread  silence  reigned,  and  calmly 
the  phantom  vessel,  with  her  solid  crew,  floated  on- 
ward and  downward,  in  utter  recklessness  as  if  the 
crowing  of  a  farmhouse  cock  only  had  disturbed  the 
night's  silence.  Irritated  at  such  manifest  contempt 
of  their  high  authority,  they  plunged  into  the  stream 
to  seize  the  boat  and  capture  its  luckless  naviga- 
tors ;  when  'confusion  utterly  confounded,'  naught 
appeared  but  the  remains  of  a  log  or  barrel,  which 
some  laughter  loving  wag  had  freighted  for  their 
mischance  and  his  amusement. 

"On  another  occasion,  they  had  learned  that 
Tyler  and  his  men  had  passed  down  the  river  as  far 
as  Blennerhassett's  island,  from  whence  he  was  ex- 
pected to  return,  to  recapture  the  boats  and  pro- 


ISLAND       HOME  51 

visions.  To  cut  off  all  possible  communication  with 
Marietta,  where  the  boats  were  tied,  particular  in- 
structions were  given  in  the  evening  to  bring  away 
all  the  water-crafts  from  the  lower  side  of  the  Mus- 
kingum.  Several  sailors,  who  boarded  on  the  oppo- 
site shore,  considered  the  opportunity  for  sport  too 
favorable  to  pass  unimproved.  The  plan  first  pro- 
posed for  the  accomplishment  of  this  end,  was  to 
raise  an  armed  party,  with  blank  cartridges,  and 
fire  at  the  sentinels.  Upon  strict  search,  however, 
they  found  that  all  the  muskets,  blunderbusses,  rifles 
and  shotguns  had  been  previously  appropriated  by 
the  militia.  The  cannon  was  then  thought  of,  when 
this,  also,  it  was  ascertained,  had  been  called  to  the 
aid  of  the  State  authorities.  Determined  not  to  be 
defeated,  in  the  laugh  they  had  promised  themselves, 
they  resorted  to  the  expedient  of  emptying  a  half- 
keg  of  powder  into  a  canvas  sack,  wrapping  it  close- 
ly with  twine.  This  they  deposited  under  ground, 
care  being  taken  to  leave  a  communication  with  the 
contents  by  means  of  a  priming-hole  and  slow 
.natch.  At  midnight,  when  all,  save  the  faithfu\ 
and  lonely  sentinels,  were  enjoying  that  repose  so 
necessary  to  the  wearied  soldier,  after  a  destructive 
attack 

"On   whiskey  and  peach-'brandy," 

a  confused  and  foreboding  sound,  from  the  opposite 
shore,  grated  unmusically  on  the  car  of  the  guards. 
Although  appearances  were  somewhat  ominous,  yet 


52  BLENNERHASSETT 

they  concluded  not  to  disturb  the  slumber  of  their 
brothers  in  arms  until  a  more  satisfactory  demon- 
stration had  been  made.  For  this  opportunity  they 
were  not  kept  long  in  suspense.  Suddenly  the  earth 
began  to  heave  and  throe,  as  if  drunk  with  the  heel- 
taps of  the  soldiers'  glasses,  and  following  in  quick 
succession,  a  report  that  many  mistook  for  the  sum- 
moning trump  of  the  end  of  time.  The  scene  which 
succeeded  is  more  easily  imagined  than  described. 
Those  less  confused,  did  indeed,  take  time  to  adjust 
their  ontsi'de  garments,  but  much  the  greater  num- 
ber started  with  nothing  but  their  nether  vestments, 
wihout  regard  to  uniform  or  military  parade.  Here 
stood  one,  vainly  struggling  to  thrust  his  feet 
through  the  armholes  aVid  sleeves  of  his  linsey 
warmus,'. while,  at  his  side  a  companion  had  drawn 
his  pants  over  his  shoulders,  illustrating  most  lu- 
dicrously, but  literally,  the  lines  of  doggerel : 

"Put  on  his  shirt  outside  his  coat, 
And  tied  his  breeches  round  his  throat." 

"Shivering  in  the  cold  winds  of  December,  they 
'hurried  in  hot  haste  to  the  tanta-ran-ta  of  the 
trumpeter,  and  rub-a-dub-dub  of  the  drum  major 
general.  Whether  any  had  taken  the  precaution  to 
load  or  prime  is  a  question  which  time  and  reflec- 
tion have  never  settled.  The  major,  who  was  a 
tailor,  is  said  to  have  charged  the  cannon  with  his 
goose — the  State  having  made  no  provision  for 
ammunition.  The  deputy,  as  he  mounted  his  horse, 


ISLAND       HOME  53 

was  heard  to  say  that,  As  great  men  were  scarce,  he 
thought  it  best  to  flee  from  danger.'  Had  Tyler  and 
his  men  been  the  real  cause  of  their  alarm,  he  would 
have  doubtless  met  with  a  stern  resistance,  but. 
fortunately  for  him,  lie  was  unconsciously  asleep  on 
the  island." 

Soon  after  the  mooring  of  Tyler's  boats  at  the 
island  landing,  the  Wood  county  militia  were  being 
assembled  'to  carry  out  the  President's  proclamatory 
orders  and  avert  the  expedition.  The  island  party 
had  information  that  the  companies  from  Newport 
'••ore  to  descend  on  them  on  the  morrow.  So  in 
haste  they  prepared  to  depart  that  night.  All  was 
activity,  and  every  recruit  was  in  motion  to  run 
bullets,  load  the  boats,  and  gather  the  still  adhering 
ones.  It  was  a  chill  night  in  fierce  December,  and 
the  snow  had  fallen  several  inches  deep. 

*  Pearly  Howe,  who  had  been  employed  to  make 
forty  boat  poles  for  the  flotilla,  on  the  evening  of 
the  loth  of  December,  went  to  deliver  them  on  the 
1  V  io  side  landing.  On  signaling  over,  a  flat  wa 
sent  to  receive  them.  On  the  boat,  two  young  men, 
recruits,  were  acting  as  sentinels,  each  armed  with  a 
rifle.  No  persons,  unless  known,  were  allowed  to 
pass  from  the  Ohio  shore  to  the  island.  One  of  the 
guards  laid  down  his  rifle  in  the  bow,  while  the  other 
sat.  wi'h  his  gun  across  his  thighs,  ready  for  action. 

Simon  Pool,  about  dusk,  under  the  authority  of 

•Evidence  as  witness  on  the  trial. 


54  BLENNERHASSETT 

the  Ohio  Governor,  went  to  'the  water's  edge,  his 
utmost  limit  of  jurisdiction,  opposite  the  island  land- 
ing, hoping  to  find  a  chance  to  apprehend  Blenner- 
hassett  on  Ohio  soil,  but  was  not  permitted  to  pass 
beyond  the  sands  of  his  State. 

There  wias  a  regular  pass  words  for  crossing 
the  channel.  Some  one  of  the  island  would  ask  to 
the  hailing  boat,  "What  boat?"  If  the  answer  was 
"Ise  boat,"  the  craft  was  unfastened  and  sent  over. 
A  watchword  was  also  used  on  the  Ohio  side. 

With  forty  or  more  men  in  four  boats  and  a 
smaller  one  added  by  Blennerhassett,  and  a  liberal 
stock  of  provisions,  five  rifles,  three  pair  of  pistols, 
one  blunderbus,  and  all  the  outfit  they  had  secured, 
Blennerhassett  and  his  assistant  directors  lifted 
moorings  and  passed  out  upon  the  stream  into  the 
night. 

The  island  was  left  almost  in  loneliness,  with 
Mrs.  Blennerhassett  and  her  two  sons,  Dominick 
and  Harman,  Jr.,  and  a  few  servants ;  who  were  all 
to  follow  in  a  few  days  in  the  special  boat  yet  on 
the  Muskingum. 

With  the  dawn  of  'the  morrow  the  Wood  county 
militia  were  astir,  and  in  a  few  hours  appeared  at 
the  deserted  isle,  with  Hugh  Phelps,  their  stalwart 
Colonel,  in  command  of  the  two  companies.  Too 
late ;  the  anticipated  game  had  flown.  Leaving  a 
small  party  of  men  in  charge  of  the  premises,  the 
commander,  with  the  remainder  of  his  volunteers, 


ISLAND       HOME 


promptly  marched  down  on  the  Virginia  shore, 
across  the  great  bend,  to  intercept  the  fugitives  at 
Point  Pelasant.  The  direct  distance  by  land  being 
less  than  one-half  that  by  water,  the  military  arrived 
at  Kanawha's  mouth  many  hours  before  the  boats. 
Colonel  Phelps  stationed  his  men  on  the  bank  of  the 
Ohio  with  strict  injunctions  to  watch  all  night.  The 
air  was  raw,  the  surroundings  uncomfortable ;  the 
villagers  sociable  and  providing,  the  whiskey  flask 
was  frequently  circulated,  overcoming  tired  limbs, 
and  thoughts  of  duty  and  discipline,  the  watchers  get 
ingloriously  drunk  and  soundly  slept,  the  Tyler  flo- 
tilla in  the  night's  obscurity,  glided  by  and  pursued 
its  way  unhailed  and  unmolested,  and  by  day-dawn 
was  too  far  on  its  course  to  be  overtaken.  In  similar 
way  it  passed  toward  its  destination,  uniting  at  the 
Falls,  on  the  i6th.  with  Floyd's  boats,  and  ten  days 
later  joined  lUirr  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cumberland, 
and  on  the  29th  passed  Fort  Massae,  notwithstand- 
ing orders  had.  been  given  by  State  Governors  for 
its  arrest. 

At  the  island,  before  the  arrival  of  the  militia, 
Mrs.  P)lennerhassett  had  mounted  her  charger, 
Robin,  and  was  on  her  way  to  obtain  the  family 
boat  at  Marietta  and  follow  the  expedition.  In  this 
she  failed  and  on  her  return  home  found  a  deplor- 
able condition  existing. 

Several  days  previous  to  the  flotilla's  departure 
from  the  island,  a  party  of  fourteen  young  men,  late 


BLENNERHA.SSETT 


students  fresh  from  academy,  with  Morgan  Neville 
and  William  Robinson,  Jr.,  sons  of  influential  and 
rich  parents,  widely  and  favorably  known,  adven- 
turous and  hoping  to  join  the  expedition  to  the 
.Spanish  dominions,  embarked  in  a  flat  boat  at  Pitts- 
burg  for  the  purpose.  When  nearly  opposite  the 
mouth  of  the  Little  Kanawha,  their  boat  was,  dur- 
ing the  night,  driven  ashore  by  the  wind  and  ice,  and 
the  next  day  they  were  all  arrested  by  the  militia 
forces  are  Newport,  and  in  their  own  craft  escorted 
to  the  island  to  await  the  return  and  pleasure  of 
Colonel  Phelps,  then  still  absent  at  Point  Pleasant. 
The  young  men,  restless  under  their  captivity  and 
disappointment  in  not  connecting  with  the  Blenner- 
hassett  flotilla,  in  their  humor  and  chagrin,  nduculed 
their  captors  in  homespun,  and  threatened  legal  re- 
taliation for  their  arrest  and  detention.  Such  im- 
pertinence became  unbearable  to  the  guards,  and 
Justices  of  the  Peace  were  sent  for  to  Newport. 
Reece  Wolfe  and  Daniel  Kincheloe  responded,  and 
in  one  of  the  richly  furnished  apartments  of  the  is- 
land mansion  the  trial  was  conducted.  The  young 
men,  with  ability  and  humorous  adroitness,  pleaded 
their  own  cause,  and  nothing  of  a  positive  or  un- 
patriotic character  being  produced,  they  were  re- 
leased. 

During  this  rather  comical  examination,  and  the 
absence  of  the   Colonel,  who  was  a   soldier  and  a 


ISLAND       HOME  57 

gentleman,  a  spirit  of  license  and  devastation  took 
possession  of  the  militiamen  left  in  charge. 

*" First  of  all,  the  men  broke  into  the  wine 
cellar,  and  there  drank  themselves  into  vandals. 
Then  they  ranged  the  house,  destroying  or  disfigur- 
ing wherever  they  went ;  firing  rifle  balls  through 
painted  ceilings,  tearing  down  costly  drapery,  and 
dashing  to  pieces  mirrors  and  vases.  Then  they 
rushed,  like  so  many  savages,  about  the  grounds, 
destroying  the  shrubbery  and  breaking  down  trellis- 
es and  arbors.  The  ornamental  fences  were  torn 
away,  piecemeal  to  make  fires  for  the  sentinels  at 
night.  In  the  midst  of  this  riot  and  destruction 
Mrs.  Blennerhassett  returned ;  but  the  embarrass- 
ments of  her  situation,  and  her  anxiety  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  expedition  were  such  that  she  surveyed 
the  ruins  of  her  abode  with  indifference." 

In  this  dilemma  the  young  men  who  had  been 
recently  relieved  of  captivity,  prepared  to  continue 
their  journey,  and,  with  sincere  sympathy  and  cour- 
tesy, offered  her  and  her  helpless  children  an  apart- 
ment in  their  boat. 

At  this  juncture  the  Colonel  arrived  from  his 
tour  of  fruitless  attempt  to  check  the  flotilla.  He 
witnessed  with  inward  mortification  and  anger,  the 
wanton  destruction  of  the  premises,  and  the  evi- 
dences of  revelry  and  ruin  by  his  men,  during  his 
compulsory  absence,  and  turning  upon  them,  with 

*Parton's  Life  of  Aaron  Burr,  pa?e  437. 


5S 


withering  look  and  stern  voice,  he  exclaimed,  * 
"Shame  !  Shame  !  Shame  on  such  conduct !  You  have 
disgraced  your  district  and  the  cause  in  which  you 
are  concerned." 

Courteously  then  and  kindly  he  met  the  released 
strangers,  acceded  to  their  wishes  and  that  of  their 
invited  guest  for  the  voyage,  aided  her  in  prepara- 
tion for  departure,  and  expressed  to  Mrs.  Blenner- 
hassett  sorrow  for  the  rudeness  shown  so  recently, 
assured  her  of  what  she  already  knew,  that  were  he 
present  the  vandalism  would  not  have  happened. 

Next  morning,  I7th  of  December,  with  the 
assistance  of  the  Colonel,  as  well  as  the  young  men, 
needed  furniture,  part  of  the  library,  trunks  and  pro- 
visions were  put  aboard  another  boat,  that  of  A.  W. 
Putman  of  Belpre — who  also  assisted  in  departure — 
lashed  alongside,  sadly,  with  shattered  dreams,  the 
Blennerhassetts,  wife  and  boys,  bade  adieu  to  a  once 
blissful  abode,  and  the  boats  sped  on  their  way. 

Early  in  January  the  family  was  reunited  at 
Bayou  Pierre  on  the  Mississippi. 

Neither  the  purpose  of  our  local  history  or 
afloted  space  in  the  volume,  will  permit  a  detail  of 
events  in  the  unhappy  destiny  or  subsequent  lives  of 
the  alleged  conspirators. 

Briefly,  the  expedition  was  a  failure ;  arrests 
followed  the  leaders,  and  both  Brur  and  Blenner- 
hassett  were  indicted  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  the 

"Judge    Stafford's    Blennerhassett    Papers. 


ISLAND       HOME  59 

U.  S.  Circuit  Court  before  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
each  on  two  charges,  one  for  treason,  the  other  for 
misdemeanor. 

Burr  was  arrested  on  the  Tombigbee  river,  in 
Washington  county,  Alabama,  conducted  to  Fort 
Stoddart,  was  a  prisoner  there  three  weeks,  and 
then,  on  horseback  with  guard  of  9  men,  under  com- 
mand of  Perkins,  started  to  Washington  City.  On 
the  way  President  Jefferson  dispatched  at  Freder- 
icksburg  a  conveyance  to  Richmond,  Va.  Blenner- 
hassett  was  arrested,  tried  and  acquitted  at  Natchez 
by  the  Territorial  authorities,  who  censured,  as  did 
the  sympathizing  people,  Jefferson  and  the  Admin- 
istration, for  their  fear  and  misconception. 

''"After  this  discharge  from  custody  he  located 
his  family  at  Natchez,  Mississippi,  and  in  June  fol- 
lowing left  that  place  on  horse,  to  return  to  his  is- 
land, and  look  after  his  affairs.  When  he  reached 
Lexington,  Ky.,  he  was  arrested  for  treason,  and 
under  guard  conveyed  to  Richmond.  Others  of 
Burr's  confederates  who  had  means  returned  to  the 
Eastern  States,  and  forgot  their  dream  of  glory  in 
the  pursuit  of  civil  life.  Others  remained  in  the 
Territory,  supplying  it  with  school  teachers,  music 
teachers,  and  dancing  masters.  These  events,  nar- 
rated in  the  papers  of  the  day,  drew  the  attention  of 
thousands  to  the  Western  States  from  the  east  as 
emigrants." 


60  BLENNERHASSETT 

"So  great  effect  had  this  alleged  Burr  conspir- 
acy upon  the  L*.  S.  that  in  1818  it  carried  the  Na- 
tional Road  over  the  Alleghany  barriers  to  bridge  a 
possible  chasm  to  sever  the  Mississippi  from  the 
I'nion.  Hence  to  meet  this  rival  line,  Virginia,  27 
Feb.  1827,  gave  authority  to  construct  a  road  from 
Winchester  over  the  mountains  to  the  Ohio  river."** 

So  exceedingly  bitter  had  become  public  opinion 
and  so  suspicious  the  multitude  toward  all  who  had 
not  displayed  animosity  in  conduct  and  speech 
against  the  expeditionist,  that  even  friendly  counsel 
was  attacked  and  motives  misconstrued.  The  Vir- 
ginia Gazette,  copying  from  the  Aurora,  declared : 

"\Ye  are  authorized  to  state  from  unquestion- 
able authority  that  James  Wilson,  who  was  Secre- 
tary of  the  Wood  County  meeting  last  Fall,  has  been 
arrested  as  one  of  Burr's  adherents,  was  examined 
before  the  magistrates,  and  found  guilty." 

Such  statement  was  an  error  in  fact.  Warrant 
was  issued,  but  by  orders  from  Richmond,  with- 
drawn. The  attempt,  however,  thus  to  reflect  upon 
the  patriotism  of  a  sensitive  nature,  so  wrought  upon 
the  accused  that  he  eventually  migrated  from  the 
county,  and  settled  in  the  Great  Kanawha  Valley. 

Blennerhassett,  learning  of  this  episode,  in  'his 
Port  Gibson  retreat,  on  the  25th  of  March,  1807, 
mailed  the  following  letter,  which  was  received  in 


ISLAND       HOME  61 

the  slow  process  of  postal  transportation,  on   nth 
of  June. 

Natchez,  March   11,   1807. 

My  Dear  Sir — I  hear  first  by  Mrs.  Blenner- 
hassett  of  the  embarrassment  you  underwent  fr. 
the  sagacity  of  yr.  patriotic  neighbors,  who  charg- 
ed you  with  a  participation  in  my  crimes.  What- 
ever inconvenience  you  have  suffered  on  that  ac- 
count, my  imagination  'has  not  failed  to  magnify,  in 
proportion,  as  my  best  services  will  never  be  want- 
ing in  my  endeavors  to  indemnify  you  for  it. 

Some  particulars  from  you  on  this  subject  fr. 
you  I  feel  much  interest  and  anxiety  to  learn.  I 
will  now  forbear  to  engage  you  further  in  this  line, 
than  to  beg  of  you  to  refer  my  present  sentiments 
to  some  future  works  that  may  verify  their  sin- 
cerity. 

AIS  you  are  probably  curious  to  know  some- 
thing of  my  destiny  and  future  prospects — I  can 
inform  you  of  the  first,  that  the  issue  of  my  trial 
fixed  here  for  May  next,  will  constitute  a  small 
portion  of  the  sand  or  mortar  with  which  the  mon- 
ument now  rising  to  the  glory  of  Mr.  Jefferson  or 
the  Constitution  i-s  to  be  cemented.  Mr.  Graham 
is  to  be  the  master-mason  on  that  part  of  the  work 
to  be  raised  in  this  part  of  the  country  ;  with  what 
address  he  will  handle  his  tools  is  yet  uncertain. 
Only  amidst  the  jar  of  convictions  and  acquittals 
that  will  reach  your  ears,  yon  will  distinguish  with 
your  usual  discernment  the  traverses  of  those  lines 
of  liberty  and  slavery  of  private  h'Miors  and  public 
duty  that  characterixe  the  high  minded  administra- 
tion of  this  free  country  and  its  happy  constitution. 

As  for  Col.   IHirr — he  mav  sink  or  raise  above 


62  B  L  E  N  N  E  R  H  A  S  S  E  T  T 


liis  enemies,  but  he  has  forfeited  no  recognizance 
in  spite  of  all  the  proclamations  that  can  be  issued 
by  Government  or  Governors.  I  am  almost  tempt- 
ed to  inclose  you  Gen.  \Yilliams  advertisement  of 
his  horse  Diomede. 

My  future  prospects  embrace' the  occupation  of 
a  Cotton  Planter,  as  the  surest  and  easiest  means 
of  retrieving  my  shattered  resources.  Not  that  I 
have  been  mistaken  in  my  belief  that  the  practice  of 
the  law,  would  succeed  well,  but  I  have  feared  that 
to  insure  success  some  practice  in  intrigues  must 
be  united  with  a  knowledge  of  law.  As  to  your- 
self, therefore,  if  you  could  stoop  somewhat  to  the 
former,  as  I  know  you  are  gifted  in  the  latter,  I 
should  not  hesitate  to  say  to  you,  move  im'nie- 
diately  hither.  You  will  be  independent  in  3  years; 
wealthy  in  6.  Think  of  this.  You  shall  hear  fur- 
ther from  me  more  particularly  as  to  the  field  here 
and  in  N.  Orleans,  when  the  weather  is  fairer  and 
I  can  better  advise  you  of  the  harvest  you  might 
make  there,  than  at  present. 

My  situation  here,  as  it  precludes  at  present 
the  means  of  my  returning  to  the  Island  to  collect 
the  property  there,  so  it  will  probably  determine 
me  ultimately  against  residing  there  again.  I  am 
now  embarassed  by  the  want  of  my  negroes, 
horses  and  household  furniture  which  I  have  en- 
treated Col.  Gushing  to  forward  to  me  in  the  best 
ma  inner  he  can,  with  a  statement  of  the  amount 
of  sales  he  has  effected.  In  this  I  request  you  to 
assist  him,  and  inform  me  of  the  general  <state  of 
all  the  business  I  left  in  your  care,  with  every  other 
concern  of  mine  I  am  sure  you  will  not  disregard, 
because  it  was  unnoticed  to  you.  I  particularly 
hope  you  have  adjusted  my  account  with  Capt. 


ISLAND       HOME  63 

Thomas  Xeale,  &c,  &c.  I  am  persuaded  you  have 
not  omitted  to  concern  yourself  with  Col.  Gush- 
ing, of  the  amount  or  value  of  the  salable  property 
you  know  I  intended  for  sale.  It  is  of  importance 
to  note  everything  down  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
every  article  kept  dry,  and  the  horses,  &c,  that  you 
could  induce  any  purchaser  to  buy  the  rest — be 
gladly  received  here  together  with  all  the  cash  that 
can  be  forwarded.  I  write  also  to  Doctor  Wallace 
and  Capt.  Neale  by  the  opportunity  of  Miss.  Boat 
and  Dana  returning  to  Belpre,  to  whom  I  refer  you 
for  further  news,  &c.  I  have  to  request  you  to 
assist  Mr.  Biggs  to  collect  and  bring  along  any  of 
my  effects  he  may  take  up  at  the  Island  on  his  way 
to  this  place. 

Mrs.  B.  retains  with  me  the  most  friendly  re- 
gards for  Mrs.  Wilson  and  yourself.  I  entreat  you 
to  write  to  me  as  soon  and  after  as  you  can,  and 
remember  you  can  always  command,  dear  Wilson, 
the  last  services  of 

Your  devoted  friend, 
HARMAN  BLENNERHASSETT. 


THE  TRIAL  AT  RICHMOND 


~*v  HIS  celebrated  case  was  docketed  for  a 
to  ke§"m  3ot^  °f  ^arcn>  J8o7,  but 


if,  numerous  delays  ensued.    It  was  in  the 

United  States  Court  for  the  Fifth  Cir- 


cuit of  the  Virginia  District,  presided  over  by  the 
distinguished  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall,  with 
Cyrus  Griffin  as  associate. 

The  Grand  Jury  for  which  twenty-four  free- 
holders were  summoned  and  sixteen  constituted, 
on  the  24th  of  June  brought  in  indictments  against 
both  Burr  and  Blennerhassett,  and  one  against  each 
for  "treason,"  and  another  for  a  "misdemeanor," 
levying  war  against  the  United  States,  at  Blenner- 
hassett Island,  time  D'ecember  10,  1806. 

John  Randolph,  Foreman,  presented  on  in- 
formation of  Peter  Taylor,  William  Eaton,  John  G. 
Henderson,  Jacob  Allbright,  D.  Woodbridge,  Jr., 
Edmund  B.  Dana,  Alexander  Henderson,  Hugh 
Phelps,  and  others.  General  Andrew  Jackson  was 
also  a  witness. 

Next  day  presentments  were  made  against 
Jonathan  Dayton,  Ex-Senator  from  New  York; 
Comfort  Tyler  and  Israel  Smith  of  same  state  ; 
John  Smith,  Ex-Senator  from  Ohio;  and  David 


ISLAND       HOME  65 

Floyd  of  the  Indian  Territory,  naming  the  place  as 
Blennerhassett  Island,  and  the  time  as  December  13, 
1806. 

On  June  26  forty-eight  jurors,  twelve  at  least 
to  be  from  Wood  county,  were  ordered  to  be  sum- 
moned. That  day  the  prisoner,  Burr,  was  removed 
from  the  goal  to  the  front  room  of  the  house  of 
Luther  Martin,  used  for  a  dining  room.  To  secure 
it,  shutters  writh  bars,  and  the  door  with  bar  and 
padlock  were  provided,  and  seven  men  as  guards 
on  the  floor  of  an  adjoining  unfinished  house. 

The  jurors  from  Wood  appeared,  and  were : 
Hezekiah  Bukey,  Jacob  Beeson,  William  Prince, 
James  G.  Laidley,  James  Henderson,  Nimrod 
Saunders,  James  Compton,  Thomas  Creel,  Anthony 
Buckner,  Hamilton  Morrison,  Yates  S.  Conwell 
and  David  Creel. 

Among  numerous  witnesses  for  the  prosecu- 
tion over  a  broad  territory,  were:  Hugh  Allen, 
Simeon  Poole,  Edward  B.  Dana,  Lewis  Kerr,  Jacob 
Jackson,  John  Blair,  Alexander  Rollston,  Alexander 
Henderson,  John  G.  Henderson,  Hugh  Phelps,  Re- 
turn J.  Meig,  Tunis  Dils,  Maurice  P.  Bellnap, 
Charles  Duval,  James  Taylor,  Bennett  Cook,  and 
Hezekiah  Lewis,  Peter  Taylor,  gardener,  Jacob 
Allbright  laborer,  Dudley  Woodbridge,  Jr.,  John 
Dana,  Morgan  Neville,  Waldo  Putnam  and  William 
Love,  groom. 

Of  all  summoned  as  petit  jurors,  from  Wood 


66  BLENNERHASSETT 

county,  not  one  was  admitted  to  the  panel,  each  one 
having  so  expressed  his  views  of  the  case  as  to  be 
barred  out. 

In  court  Burr  appeared  with  scrupously  neat 
attire,  in  black,  with  powdered  hair  and  queue,  in 
manner  dignified,  composed,  polite,  impressive,  and 
hopeful,  never  under  any  provocation  losing  his 
temper,  nor  giving  -personal  retort.  He  guided  his 
assistant  counsel,  brought  forward  nearly  every 
motion  on  his  own  side,  and  clearly  and  briefly 
stated  the  grounds  therefor.  Blennerhassett  was 
as  neatly  and  carefully  attired,  but  less  buoyant  in 
spirits,  and  only  could  await  the  result  of  the  trial 
of  his  principal's  case. 

The  assisting  counsel  were :  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph, an  old-school  gentlemen ;  John  Wickham,  an 
Englishman  of  bearing,  eloquence  and  logic,  of  fine 
presence  and  persuasive  manner ;  Luther  Martin, 
one  of  the  most  noted  lawyers  of  Maryland;  Ben- 
jamin Botts,  father  of  John  Minor,  young,  ready, 
dashy,  and  a  caricaturist  in  word  painting;  Charles 
Lee,  once  United  States  Attorney  General ;  and 
unique  "Jack  Baker,"  a  lame  man,  a  merry  fellow, 
with  horse  wit,  but  no  lawyer  or  speaker,  the  hu- 
morist of  the  group.  All  these  counsellors  tender- 
ed their  services  gratitously  to  Colonel  Burr ; 
Wickham  and  Botts  did  likewise  to  Blennerhassett. 

In  selecting  a  panel  the  record  states,  beginn- 
ing with  the  first,  Hezikiah  Bukey: 


ISLAND       HOME  67 

Botts.  We  challenge  you  for  cause.  Have 
you  ever  formed  an  opinion  about  the  guilt  of  Col. 
Burr? 

Bukey.  I  have  not  sir,  since  I  have  been  sub- 
poenaed. 

Ques.     Had  you  before? 

Ans.  I  had  formed  one  before  in  my  own 
mind. 

Here  Hay,  the  prosecutor,  stated,  he  did  not 
believe  there  was  a  single  man  in  the  State,  qualified 
to  become  a  juryman,  who  had  not  in  some  form  or 
other  made  up  and  declared  an  opinion  on  the  con- 
duct of  the  prisoner. 

Botts.  Have  you  said  Col.  Burr  was  guilty 
of  treason? 

Bukey.  No.  I  only  declared  that  the  man  who 
acted  as  Col.  Burr  was  said  to  have  done,  de- 
served to  be  hung. 

Ques.     Did  you  believe  that  Col.  Burr  was  that 
man  ? 

Ans.     I  did,  from  what  I  had  heard. 

Wirt.  Did  I  understand  you  to  say  that  you 
concluded  upon  certain  rumors  that  you  had  heard, 
that  Col.  Burr  deserved  to  be  hung? 

Bukey.     I  did. 

Ques.     Did  you  believe  these  rumors? 

Ans.     I  did. 

Ques.  Would  you,  if  you  were  a  juryman, 
form  your  opinion  upon  the  question  whether  an 


68 


overt  act  of  treason  had  been  committed  at  Blen- 
nerhassett  Island,  from  the  rumors  heard? 

•    Ans.     It  was  upon  other  rumors,  and  not  upon 
that,  that  I     had  formed  an  opinion, 

Martin  submitted  it  to  the  court,  whether  ho 
could  be  considered  an  impartial  juryman. 

The  court  decided  that  he  ought  not  to  be  so 
considered,  and  he  was  accordingly  rejected. 

James  G.  Laidley  stated  that  he  had  formed 
and  expressed  some  opinions  unfavorable  to  Colo- 
nel 'Burr,  that  he  could  not  pretend  to  decide  upon 
the  charges  in  the  indictment,  which  he  had  not 
heard;  that  he  had  principally  taken  his  own  opin- 
ion from  newspaper  statements;  and  that  he  had 
not,  so  far  as  he  recollected,  expressed  an  opinion 
that  Colonel  Burr  deserved  hanging,  but  that  his 
impression  was  that  he  was  guilty.  He  was  there- 
fore rejected. 

James  Compton  being  challenged  for  cause  and 
sworn,  stated  that  he  had  formed  and  expressed  an 
opinion  from  hearsay,  that  Colonel  Burr  was  guilty 
of  treason,  and  of  that  particular  treason  of  which 
he  stood  charged,  as  far  as  he  understood.  He 
was  rejected. 

Mr.  Burr  observed  that  as  gentlemen  on  the 
part  of  the  prosecution  had  expressed  a  willingness 
to  have  an  impartial  jury,  they  could  not  refuse 
that  any  juryman  should  state  all  his  objections  to 
IrmseH;  and  that  he  had  no  doubt,  in  spite  of  the 


ISLAND       HOME  69 

contrary  assertions  which  had  been  made,  that  they 
couKl  get  a  jury  from  the  panel. 

Hamilton  Morrison,  upon  being  called,  said 
that  he  had  frequently  thought  and  declared  that 
Colonel  Burr  was  guilty,  if  the  statements  which 
he  had  heard  were  true ;  that  he  did  not  know 
whether  they  were  so,  but  only  thought  from  the 
great  clamor  which  had  been  made  that  it  might  be 
possible  that  he  had  not  passed  any  positive  opin- 
ion ;  nor  was  he  certain  that  he  had  always  qualified 
it  by  saying:  "If  these  things  were  true;"  that  he 
does  not  recollect  to  have  said,  that  Colonel  Burr 
ought  to  be  punished,  without  stating  at  the  same 
time,  "If  he  were  guilty."  Mr.  Morrison  was  sus- 
pended for  further  examination. 

Yates  S.  Conwell  had  formed  and  expressed 
an  opinion,  from  the  reports  he  had  heard,  that 
Colonel  Burr  must  be  guilty  of  high  treason.  He 
was  accordingly  set  aside. 

Jacob  Beeson  declared  that  he  had  for  some 
time  past  formed  an  opinion,  as  well  from  news- 
paper publication  as  from  boats  which  had  been 
built  on  the  Ohio,  that  Colonel  Burr  was  guilty; 
and  that  he  himself  had  borne  arms  to  suppress 
this  insurrection.  He  was  therefore  set  aside  as 
incompetent. 

William  Prince  declared  he  had  nearly  the 
same  impression  as  Mr.  Beeson  ;  that  he,  too,  had 
borne  arms:  as  well  on  Blennerhassett's  Island  as 


70 


on  descending  the  river  in  search  of  Blennerhassett. 
He  was  set  aside  in  like  manner. 

Nimrod  Saunders  declared,  that  he  had  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  previously  to  his  being  sum- 
moned on  the  jury,  that  the  prisoner  had  been 
guilty  of  treason.  He  was  therefore  set  aside  as 
incompetent. 

Thomas  Creel  had  no  declaration  to  make, 
and  was  challenged  for  cause.  Upon  being  inter- 
rogated, he  stated  that  he  had  never  asserted  that 
the  prisoner  ought  to  'be  punished ;  that  he  had 
said,  that  he  was  a  sensible  man ;  and  if  there  was 
any  hole  left,  he  would  creep  out  of  it ;  that  he 
had  conceived  that  Colonel  Burr  had  seduced  Blen- 
nerhassett into  some  acts  that  were  not  right;  that 
he  had  never  positively  said  that  Colonel  Burr  was 
guilty;  that  he  had  said  that  Blennerhassett  was 
the  most  blamable,  because  he  was  in  good  circum- 
stances, and  well  off  in  life ;  whereas  Colonel  Burr's 
situation  was  desperate,  and  that  he  had  little  to 
lose ;  that  he  had  not  said,  that  Colonel  Burr  di- 
rectly misled  Mr.  Blennerhassett,  but  through  the 
medium  of  Mrs.  Blennerhassett ;  in  short,  that  there 
was  no  determinate  impression  on  his  mind  re- 
specting the  guilt  of  the  prisoner. 

The  Chief  Justice  did  not  think  that  this  was 
sufficient  to  set  him  aside,  and  suspended  his  case 
for  further  examination. 

Anthony  Buckner  had  frequently  said  that  the 


ISLAND       HOME  71 

'  prisoner  deserved  to  be  hung.     He  was  therefore 
set  aside.* 

David  Creel  had  formed  an  opinion  from  the 
statement  in  the  newspapers,  and  if  these  were 
true,  the  prisoner  was  certainly  guilty.  He  had 
expressed  a  belief  that  he  was  guilty  of  the  charges 
now  brought  against  him,  and  that  he  ought  to  be 
hanged.  He  was  therefore  rejected. 

Subsequently,  nth  of  August,  James  Hender- 
son, of  Wood  County,  who  was  absent  yesterday, 
was  called.  He  was  challenged  for  cause.  On 
being  examined  by  Mr.  Botts,  he  admitted  that  he 

"The  pamphlet,  "Biography  of  the  Buckner  Family"  gives 
this  fuller  version  of  the  examination  of  Col.  Anthony 
Buckner. 

"He  had  'been  as  most  of  his  comrades  upon  the  same 
occasion,  and  his  associates  near  the  island-tome  of  the 
Irish  Barrister,  who  was  also  accused,  open  in  his  denun- 
ciation of  Conspirator  Burr,  and  indignant  at  the  stuptid 
acquiescence  and  aid  given  by  his  friend  Blenraerhassett. 
Upon  being  interrogated  in  court  as  to  any  expression  of 
guilt  or  innocence  in  the  pending  case,  replied  that,  "He 
had  frequently  declared  the  opinion  that  any  man  who  did 
as  it  was  said  the  prisoner  had  acted,  should  be  hung." 

He  was  further  asked:  "Did  you  not  say  you  would  giive 
five  pounds  for  Colonel  Burr's  head?  Looking  keenly  at  the 
prisoner,  he  replied,  "Yes,  by  G — d,  and  I'll  do  it  yet." 

The  silence  for  a  moment  was  paimful.  You  mlight  have 
heard  a  pin  drop.  As  he  poured  out  these  emphatic  but 
not  very  elegant  or  courteous  iwords1,  his  piercing  black 
hours  moulding  bullets  for  the  volunteer  militia." 
eyes,  that  seem  to  look  through  one,  flashed  Ire  upon  the 
marbleized  face  of  the  distinguished  defendant,  'but  no  or- 
der of  contempt  was  therefor  .issued  against  him. 

He  and  his  son-in-law,  George  Creel,  Jr.,  had  the  night 
before  going  to  the  island,  sat  up  during  all  its  December 
hours  moulding  bullets  for  the  volunteer  militia. 


72  BLENNERHASSETT 

was  not  a  freeholder;  and  was  subsequently  set 
aside. 

Mr.  Hamilton  Harris  was  the  next  of  the  sus- 
pended jurymen  who  was  called.  He  declared 
that  it  was  with  pain  he  should  serve  on  the  jury; 
that  he  did  not  wish  to  serve  on  it;  that  it  was  still 
more  disagreeable  to  him,  as  the  defendant  seemed 
to  have  such  imaginary  thoughts  against  him ; 
that  he  had  not  meddled  with  the  prisoner's  tran- 
sactions, though  perhaps  he  might  have  done  so, 
had  it  been  profitable  to  him.  James  Henderson 
and  Mr.  Neale  were  'both  examined  as  to  what  they 
might  have  heard  him  say  on  the  subject,  and  both 
declared  that  they  had  heard  him  say  nothing  ma- 
terial. 

Mr.  Burr — Hlave  not  these  rumors  excited  a 
prejudice  in  your  mind  against  me? 

Ans.     I  have  no  prejudice  for  or  against  you. 

Mr.  Botts.     Are  you  a  freeholder? 

Ans.     I  have  two  patents  of  land. 

Ques.     Are  you  worth  three  hundred  dollars? 

Ans.  Yes ;  I  have  a  horse  here  that  is  worth 
the  half  of  it. 

Ques.  Have  you  another  at  home  to  make  up 
the  other  half? 

Ans.  Yes;  four  of  them.  (Here  the  court 
said  that  sufficient  cause  had  not  been  shown 
against  his  being  a  proper  juror.)  I  am  surprised 
why  they  should  be  in  so  much  terror  of  me.  Per- 


ISLAND       HOME  73 

haps  my  name  may  be  a  terror,  for  my  first  name 
is  Hamilton. 

Colonel  Burr  then  observed  that  that  remark 
was  a  sufficient  cause  for  objecting  to  him,  and 
challenged  him.  Mr.  Morrison  was  therefore  set 
aside. 

This  was  the  first  peremptory  challenge  which 
the  prisoner  made,  of  the  thirty-five  to  which  the 
law  entitles  him. 

Thomas  Creel,  another  of  the  suspended  jury- 
men from  Wood  county,  was  next  set  aside  by  the 
court,  because,  he  said,  that  he  had  both  formed 
and  expressed  sentiments  unfavorable  to  the  pris- 
oner. 

None  from  the  county  of  Wood  but  had  so  ex- 
pressed opinions  as  to  afford  cause  for  rejection, 
so  the  jury  had  to  be  made  up  entirely  from  citi- 
zens distant  from  the  place  of  alleged  treason. 

THE  WITNESSES. 

The  official  reports  of  the  trial  and  other 
sources  available  this  century  after  the  event;  do 
not  furnish  interesting  incidents  of  narration  of  any 
value.  They  seem  to  indicate  that  the  evidence  of 
a  conspiracy  was  not  abundant  in  the  locality  of 
the  island. 

In  substance,  Peter  Taylor,  the  gardener,  said, 
that  he  had  been  with  Blennerhassett  three  years ; 
in  October,  1806,  his  employer  had  inquired  for 
young  men  who  had  rifles,  were  orderly,  and  could 


74  BLENNERHASSETT 

conform  to  discipline ;  that  in  this  inquiry  he  stated 
that  Colonel  Burr  had  80,000  acres  of  land  in  the 
southwest,  and  wanted  young  men  to  settle  upon 
it ;  that  he  would  give  any  such  one  who  would  go 
down  the  river,  plenty  of  grog  and  victuals  while 
going  down  the  stream,  and  three  months  provis- 
ions after  they  had  got  to  the  end ;  and  that  every 
one  enlisting  must  have  his  own  rifle  and  blanket 
to  bring  with  him. 

Jacob  Allbright,  a  Dutchman  laborer,  said  that 
he  was  hired  to  build  a  kiln  for  drying  corn  on  the 
island ;  after  the  grain  was  dried  it  was  sent  to 
mill ;  that  he  was  four  weeks  on  the  island  in  that 
business ;  that  the  snow  was  two  or  three  inches 
deep  when  the  Beaver  boats  landed  at  the  pier; 
that  Blennerhassett  paid  off  in  Kentucky  notes, 
'not  very  good  to  circulate;  that  he  went  over  to 
the  bank  at  Kanawha  to  change  them ;  that  he  saw 
one  or  more  moulding  bullets  in  the  kitchen  ;  that 
he  assisted  in  carrying  to  the  boats  four  or  five 
trunks  on  the  night  of  the  departure. 

William  Love,  the  groom  of  Blennerhassett, 
alleged  that  it  was  a  very  cold  night  the  hour  the 
boats  left  the  island,  raining  and  freezing;  that 
Blennerhassett's  clothes  were  put  into  the  boat  he 
was  to  occupy ;  that  Dudley  Woodbridge  slept  on 
the  island  that  night. 

It  was  also  shown  that  the  boats  left  the  shore 
Wednesday  night  of  the  I3th  of  December ;  that 


ISLAND       HOME  75 

there  were  only  four  of  them,  and  about  thirty  men 
therein ;  that  on  the  island  when  preparing  to  em- 
bark, some  packed  meat  on  board  and  some  carried 
other  things ;  that  they  untied  about  one  o'clock  at 
night ;  that  there  was  one  sick  one  left  on  the  island. 
That  Nahm  Bennett  was  sent  before  day  to  pass 
Gallipolis,  with  two  horses,  to  connect  with  the 
flotilla;  that  Burr  had  been  on  the  island  not  later 
than  six  weeks  before  the  boats  left  shore;  that 
depositions  for  the  trial  were  taken  before  John  G. 
Jackson  ;  that  the  party  had  left  at  that  hour  in  the 
night  because  the  Kanawha  militia  were  expected 
down  very  early  next  morning;  that  a  half  bushel  of 
candles  and  some  brandy  were  taken  into  the  boats ; 
that  the  party  held  a  council  at  the  foot  of  the  pier, 
and  all  left  together ;  that  they  only  intended  to 
defend  in  case  of  attack  by  the  expected  mob,  was 
the  drift  of  declarations  heard. 

During  the  examination  of  witnesses,  as  well 
as  in  arguments  thereon  and  thereafter,  the  eminent 
counsel  on  both  sides  displayed  enthusiasm,  legal 
learning,  tact  and  forensic  and  poetic  oratory.  The 
press  as  well  as  the  bar  were  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  the  issues  involved,  and  the  attention 
of  the  people,  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  river  border 
to  southern  gulf,  was  thoroughly  engrossed.  It 
was  the  only  topic  each  day  near  the  scene  of  the 
initial  acts  of  the  alleged  conspiracy.  In  Wood 
county  it  was  looked  upon  from  both  political  and 


personal  standpoints.  •  By  some,  Jefferson,  the 
President,  was  blamed  as  being  too  ardent,  sus- 
picious and  partisanly  vindictive  without  occasion, 
and  by  others  his  course  was  not  only  justified  but 
commended,  and  the  object  of  the  attempted  en- 
terprise believed  to  have  been  unpatriotic  and  dan- 
gerous to  civic  liberty.  Blennerhassett,  however, 
with  few  exceptions,  was  considered  deceived  as  to 
the  nature  and  end  of  the  expedition,  and  the  sym- 
pathies of  his  admirers  and  neighbors  went  out 
strongly  towards  him  in  his  financial  and  legal 
embarrassment  and  the  serious  accusations  against 
him.  Even  Burr  had  among  many  west  of  the  Al- 
leghenies  sincere  devotees,  and  numerous  sons  ol 
unrelated  families  near  the  close  of  that  era  bear 
his  name  as  their  own  distinctive  appellation. 

Late  in  September  Burr  was  discharged  on  the 
main  indictment  in  the  United  States  Court,  and 
the  one  for  treason  against  Blennerhassett,  though 
a  bond  of  $5,000  was  given,  with  Dudley  Wood- 
bridge  as  security,  was  never  prosecuted. 

Judge  Marshall  ended  the  "misdemeanor"  trial 
by  stating: 

"I  shall  commit  Burr  and  Blennerhassett  for 
preparing  and  providing  means  for  a  military  ex- 
pedition against  the  territories  of  a  foreign  prince 
with  whom  the  United  States  is  at  peace.  If  those 
whose  province  and  duty  it  is  to  prosecute  offend- 
ers again-st  the  United  States  shall  not  be  of  opinion 
that  a  crime  of  deeper  dye  has  been  committed,  it 


ISLAND       HOME  77 

is  at  t'heir  choice  to  act  in  conformity  with  that 
opinion. 

"If  Burr  is  sent  to  Kentucky,  Blennerhassett 
cannot  be,  because  he  has  provided  no  means  for 
an  expedition  but  in  the  District  of  Qhio." 

They  were  ordered  committed  to  Ohio,  and 
admitted  to  bail  in  the  sum  of  $3,000  each;  Luther 
Martin  and  Dr.  Cummings  became  sureties  for 
Burr,  and  Dr.  Cummings  and  Israel  Smith  for 
Blennerhassett. 

Both  were  in  custody  for  long  months,  and  as 
the  act  was  one,  the  grade  of  leadership  and  guilt 
different  but  interlaced,  the  acquittal  of  Burr  end- 
ed the  prosecution,  and  virtually  set  both  expedi- 
tionists free  again,  but  left  them  wrecked  in  for- 
tune and  influence,  and  the  ardor  of  their  energies 
and  ambition  dampened. 


DESOLATION  and  ENDING 


uf /Y'Y 
4J   [ 


4^  ITHIN  one  year  from  leaving  the  island, 
^  Blennerhassett  returned  to  find  it  deso- 
^  "  "  M  late»  his  property  seized  for  debt,  many 
j^S^_  articles,  among  which  was  Robin  a  fav- 
orite horse,  stolen,  'slaves  sold  or  escaped,  and  house 
gutted  of  its  contents.  The  prospect  was  in  no  wise 
encouraging,  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  his 
naturally  timid  heart  almost  failed  him. 

The  boats  fitted  up  on  the  Muskingum  had 
been  modified  for  transports  to  carry  United  States 
troops  from  Marietta  to  St.  Louis.  Under  orders 
of  the  President,  the  meal  and  one  hundred  barrels 
of  pork  stored  for  the  expedition,  had  been  sold  and 
the  funds  appropriated.  Ransom  Read,  the  best 
slave,  for  a  debt*  of  thirty-five  dollars  and  costs,  had 
been  cried  off  at  a  public  sale. 

Negligence  of  tenants,  river  freshets,  and  the 
rudeness  of  those  in  charge  who  viewed  it  as  public 
property,  had  rendered  the  building  and  surround- 
ings pitiable  to  behold.  Window  casings  had  been 
torn  out  to  procure  the  leaden  weights  by  which 
the  sashes  were  poised.  The  stone  roller  used  to 
leven  his  lawn  and  grounds,  was  broken  to  obtain 
the  iron  axles  on  which  it  ran.  Hemp  and  cordage 


ISLAND       HOME  79 

machinery  took  the  place  of  flowers  and  shrubbery. 

He  sadly  looked  upon  the  ruins  of  his  once 
bright  home,  and  returned  to  Natchez,  purchased  a 
plantation  of '1000  acres,  at  St.  Catherine,  near  Port 
Gibson,  Claiborne  county,  Mississippi,  on  it  placed 
twenty-two  slaves,  and  there,  upon  about  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  it,  began  the  culture  of  cotton.  The 
war  with  Great  Britain,  in  1812-15,  occasioned  an 
embargo  and  reduction  in  values,  and  the  enterprise 
was  abandoned.  He  sold  the  plant  for  $27,000 
which  scarcely  satisfied  his  creditors. 

The  Blennerhassetts  spent  ten  years  on  their 
cotton  plantation,  enjoying  the  society  of  a  few 
choice  friends.  Harman,  however,  seemed  to  have 
dropped  hope  and  muscular  energy.  During  this 
period  another  son  and  a  daughter  were  added  to 
the  home  circle.  Lady  Margaret,  with  her  char- 
acteristic industry  rose  at  early  down,  mounted  Her 
horse,  and  rode  over  the  grounds,  examining  each 
field,  and  giving  directions  to  the  overseer  as  to 
the  work  to  be  done  that  clay,  or  any  alteration  to 
be  made  in  the  plans,  which  circumstances  required. 

He  removed  to  New  York,  and  attempted  the 
practice  of  law.  Not  succeeding,  he  went  to  Can- 
ada in  1819,  and  there  also  failed  in  his  purposes. 
Then  he  visited  Ireland,  his  native  heath,  to  prose- 
cute a  reversionary  claim,  but  was  barred  by  statute 
of  limitations.  During  this  absence  of  her  hus- 
band, Mrs.  Blennerhassett  found  a  home  in  New 


80  BLEXNERHASSETT 

York,  and  was  financially  assisted  by  the  Emmetts. 
She  went  then  to  Pennsylvania,  where  at  Wilks- 
barre,  her  sister,  Mrs.  Dow,  resided.  She  next  join- 
ed her  husband  in  Montreal,  and  while  there,  in 
1824,  wrote  for  publication  a  volume  entitled, 
"Widow  of  the  Rock  and  Other  Poems."  Among 
the  productions  of  her  pen  while  in  Canada  was  the 
pathetic  one  named: 

THE  DESERTED  ISLE. 

Likt  mournful  echo,  from  the  silent  tonub, 

That  pines  away  upon  the  midnight  air, 

Whilst  the  pale  moon  breaks  out,  with  fitful  gloom; 

Fond  memory  turns'  with  sad,  but  welcome  care, 

To  scenes  of  desolation  and  despair; 

Once  bright  with  all  that  beauty  could  bestow, 

That  peace  could  shed,  or  youthful  fancy  know. 

To  the  fair  isle,  reverts  the  pleasing  dream; 
Again  thou  risest,  in  thy  green  attire, 
Fresh,  as  at  first;  thy  blooming  graces  seem:  — 
Thy  groves,  thy  fields,  their  wonted  sweets  respire; 
Again  thou'rt  all  my  heart  could  e'er  desire. 
Oh!  Why,  dear  isle,  are  thou  not  still  my  own? 
Thy  charms  could  then  for  all  my  griefs  atone. 

The  stranger  that  descends  Ohio's  stream, 
Oharmed  with  the  beauteous  prospects  that  arise, 
Marks  the  soft  isles  that,  'neath  the  glittering  beam, 
Dance  with  the  wave  and  mingle  with  the  skies; 
Sees,  also,  one  that  now  in  ruin  lies, 
WMch  erst,  like  fairy  queen,  towered  o'er  the  rest, 
In  every  native  chanin,  by  culture  dressed. 

There  rose  the  seat,  where  once,  in  pride  of  life, 
My  eye  could  mark  the  queenly  river's  flow, 
In  summer's  calmness,  or  in  winter's  strife, 
(Swollen  with  rains,  or  battling  with  the  snow. 
Never,  again,  my  heart  such  joy  shall  know. 


ISLAND       HOME  81 

Havoc  and  ruin,  rampant  war,  have  passed 
Over  that  isle,  with  their  destroying  blast. 

The   black'ning  fire   has  swept  throughout  her  halls, 

The  winds  fly  whistling  o'er  tihem,  and  the  wave 

No   more,   in   spring  floods,  o'er     the   sand  beach  crawls, 

But  furious  drowns  in  one  o'erwhelming  grave, 

Thy  hallow'd  haunts  it  watered  as  a  slave. 

Drive  on,  destructive  flood!   and  ne'er  again, 

On  that  devoted  isle  let  man  remaiin. 

Too  many  bliss'ful   moments   there  I've  known; 
Too  many  hopes  have  there  met  their  decay; 
Too  many  feelings  now  forever  gone, 
To  wish  that  thou  could'st  e'er  again  display 
The  joyful  coloring  of  thy  .prime  array: 
Buried  with  thee,  let  them  remain  a  blot, 
With  thee,  their  sweets,  their  (bitterness  forgot. 

And,  oh!  that  I  could  wholly  wipe  .away 

The  memory  of  the  ills  that  worked  thy  fall; 

The  memory  of  that  all-eventful   day, 

W'hen  I  returned,  and  found  my  own  fair  hall 

Held  by  the  infuriate  populace  in  thrall; 

My  own  fireside  blockaded  by  a  band 

That  once  found  food  and  shelter  of  my  hand. 

My  children  (oh!  a  mother's  pangs  forbear; 
Nor  strike  again  that  arrow  to  my  soul;) 
Clasping  the  ruffians  in  suppliiant  prayer; 
To  free  their  mother  from  unjust  control, 
While  with  false  crimes  and  imprecation®  foul, 
The  wretched,  vilest  refuse  of  the  earth, 
Mock  jurisdiction  held  around  my  hearth. 

Sweet  is>le!  methinks  I  see  thy  bosom  torn; 

Agaiin   behold  the  ruthless   ra'bble  throng, 

That   wrought   destruction   taste   must  ever   mourn. 

Alas1!  I  see  thee  now — shall  .see  thee  long; 

But  ne'er  shall  bitter  feelings  urge  the  wrong, 

That  to  a  mob,  would  give  the  censure,  due 

To  those  that  arm'd  the  plunder-greedy  crew. 


82  BLENNERHASSETT 

Thy  shores  are  warmed  by  bounteous  suns  in  vain, 

Columbia! — if  spite  and  envy  spring, 

To  blot  the  beauty  of  mild  nature's  reign: 

The  European   stranger,  who  would   fling, 

O'er  tangled  -woods,  refinement's  polis'Mng, 

May  find,  expended  every  .plan  of  taste, 

His  works  by  ruffians  rendered  dO'Ubly  waste. 

After  a  brief  stay  the  family  embarked  for 
Bath,  England,  to  reside  with  his  maiden  sister  at 
Cottage  Crescent.  Thence  for  health  they  went  to 
St.  Aubin,  on  the  Isle  of  Jersey,  to  be  with  his 
sister  Avis.  Thence  they  removed  to  Port  Prerie, 
upon  the  Island  of  Guernsey,  where  February  I, 
1831,  on  the  bosom  of  his  devoted  Margaret,  whom 
thirty-four  years  before  he  had  married,  he  passed 
away,  within  requiem  murmur  of  the  never  ceasing 
waves. 

In  1842  his  widow  visited  the  United  States  to 
seek  relief  from  the  government,  which  had  prose- 
cuted relentlessly  and  almost  inexcusably  despoiled. 
She  asked  damages  for  acts  of  the  Virginia  militia, 
in  a  statement  made  out  by  Dudley  &  Woodbridge, 
who  well  could  estimate  its  extent. 

She  also  petitioned  for  relief  sought  in  the  fol- 
lowing words : 

"Your  memoralist  does  not  desire  to  exagger- 
at  the  conduct  of  the  said  armed  men,  or  the  injur- 
ies done  by  them ;  but  she  can  truly  say,  that  be- 
fore their  visit,  the  residence  of  her  famiily  had 
been  noted  for  its  elegance  and  high  state  of  im- 
provement, and  that  they  left  it  in  a  state  of  com- 


ISLAND       HOME  83 

parative  ruin  and  waste ;  and  as  instance  of  the 
mischievous  and  destructive  spirit  which  appeared 
to  govern  them,  she  would  mention  that  while  they 
occupied  as  a  guard-room  one  of  the  best  apart- 
ments in  the  house  (the  building  of  which  had  cost 
nearly  forty  thousand  dollars),  a  musket  or  rifle 
•ball  was  deliberately  fired  into  the  ceiling,  by  Which 
it  was  much  defaced  and  injured,  and  that  they 
wantonly  destroyed  many  pieces  of  valuable  furni- 
ture. She  would  also  state,  .that  being  apparently 
under  no  subordination,  they  indulged  in  continual 
drunkenness  and  riot,  offering  many  indignities  to 
your  memoralist,  and  treating  her  domestics  with 
violence. 

Your  memorialist  further  represents,  that  these 
outrages  were  committed  upon  an  unoffending  and 
defenceless  family  in  the  absence  of  their  natural 
protector,  your  memorialists'  husband  being  then 
away  from  home ;  and  that  in  answer  to  sudh  re- 
monstrances as  she  ventured  to  make  against  the 
consumption,  waste  and  destruction  of  his  property, 
she  was  told  by  those  who  assumed  to  have  the 
command,  that  they  held  the  property  for  the 
United  States,  by  order  of  the  President,  and  were 
privileged  to  use  it,  and  should  use  it,  as  they 
pleased.  It  is  with  pain  that  you  memorialist  re- 
verts to  events,  which,  in  their  consequences,  have 
reduced  a  once  happy  family  from  aff'hience  and 
comfort  to  comparative  want  and  wretchedness ; 
which  blighted  the  prospect  of  her  children,  and 
made  herself,  in  the  decline  of  life,  a  wanderer  on 
•the  face  of  the  earth." 

With  this  petition  is  filed  also  the  following: 


84  BLENNER  HAS  SETT 

"On  the  I3th  day  of  December,  1806,  the  boat 
in  which  we  were,  was  driven  ashore,  by  ise  and 
wind,  on  Backus  Island,  about  one  mile  below  Mr. 
Blennerhassett's  house  ;  we  landed  in  the  forenoon, 
and  the  wind  continuing  unfavorable,  did  not  afford 
us  any  opportunity  of  putting  off  until  after  three 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  at  which  time  we  were  at- 
tacked by  about  twenty-five  men,  well  armed,  who 
rushed  upon  us  suddenly,  and  we,  not  being  in  a 
situation  to  resist  the  fury  of  a  mob,  surrendered ; 
a  strong  guard  was  placed  in  the  boat  to  prevent, 
we  presume,  those  persons  of  our  party  who  re- 
mained in  the  boat,  from  going  off  with  her,  while 
we  were  taken  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Blennerhassett. 
On  our  arrival  at  the  house  we  found  it  filled  with 
militia ;  another  party  of  them  were  engaged  in 
making  fires,  around  the  house,  of  rails  dragged 
from  the  fences  of  Mr.  Blennerhassett.  At  this 
time  Mrs.  Blennerhassett  was  from  home.  When 
she  returned,  about  an  hour  after,  s'he  remonstrated 
against  this  outrage  on  the  property,  but  without 
effect ;  the  officers  declared  that  while  they  were 
on  the  island  the  property  absolutely  belonged  to 
them.  We  were  informed,  by  themselves  that  their 
force  consisted  of  forty  men  the  first  night ;  and  on 
the  third  day  it  was  increased  to  eighty.  The 
officers  were  constantly  issuing  the  wlhiskey  and 
mea't,  which  had  been  laid  up  for  the  use  of  the 
family,  and  whenever  any  complaint  was  made  by 
the  friends  of  Mrs.  Blennerhassett,  they  invariably 
asserted  that  everything  on  the  farm  was  their  own 
property.  There  appeared  to  us  to  be  no  kind  of 
stiibordination  among  the  men  ;  the  large  room  they 
occupied  on  the  first  Moor  presented  a  continued 


ISLAND       HOME  85 

scene  of  riot  and  drunkenness;  the  furniture  ap- 
peared ruined  by  the  bayonets ;  and  one  of  the 
men  fired  his  gun  against  the  ceiling;  the  ball 
made  a  large  hole,  which  completely  spoiled  the 
beauty  of  the  room.  They  insisted  that  the  ser- 
vants should  wait  upon  them,  before  attending  to 
their  mistress ;  when  this  was  refused,  they  seized 
upon  the  kitchen  and  drove  the  negroes  into  the 
wash  house.  We  were  detained  from  Saturday 
evening  until  Tuesday  morning,  during  which  time 
they  were  never  less  tin  an  thirty,  and  frequently 
from  seventy  to  eighty  men  living  in  this  riotous 
manner  entirely  on  provisions  of  Mrs.  Blennerhas- 
set't.  When  we  left  the  island,  a  cornfield  near 
the  house,  in  which  the  corn  was  still  remaining, 
was  filled  with  cattle,  the  fences  having  been  pulled 
down  to  make  fires.  This  we  pledge  ourselves  to 
a  true  statement  of  those  transactions,  as  impres- 
sion was  made  on  us  at  the  time. 

MORGAN   NEVILLE, 
WM.   ROBINSON,  JR. 

Henry  Clay,  with  sincerity  and  ardor,  urged 
its  passage  before  the  proper  committee,  but  while 
pending  therein,  she  died,  worn  out  and  mortified 
with  toil  and  privation,  attended  only  by  her  son 
Harman,  and  Mary,  a  black  servant,  who,  her  for- 
mer slave,  would  not  desert  her  even  in  the  depths. 
This  negrees  remained  faithful  with  Harman,  the 
son,  till  his  death,  and  subsequently  was  burned  to 
death. 

Mrs.  Blennerhassett  was  a  member  of  the 
Episcopal  church,  and  buried  by  their  beautiful 


86  BLENNERHASSETT 

ritual,  in  the  family  vault  of  Thomas  Addis  Em- 
mett,  the  friend  of  other  days.  At  the  funeral 
were  both  Robert  Emmett,  the  father  and  his  son. 
Watched  during  her  illness  by  her  devoted  Har- 
man,  and  the  faithful  Mary,  she  sank  peacefully  to 
rest.  The  "Marble  Cemetery"  of  repose  is  a  small, 
plain  enclosure  on  Second  street  in  New  York,  with 
no  shrubbery  or  flowers,  but  strewn  with  vaults, 
amid  the  rush  of  a  busy  world  around. 

Of  their  children,  it  may  be  said : 

1.  Dominick,  born  in  1799,  the  eldest  son  was 
dlissipated.     In    1822    he    sailed    for    Savannah ;    in 
1823  he  enlisted  as  surgeon-mate,  drank  heavily  and 
was  discharged.     In  New  York  he  turned  up  desti- 
tute, and  by  intervention  of  friends  of  his  fathers 
was  made  assistant  apothecary  in  a  hospital.     Sub- 
sequently he  lost  his  position  and  went  to  St.  Louis 
Mo. 

2.  Harman,  Jr.,  born  in  1801,  was  an  invalid, 
became   a   portrait   painter,   succeeded   poorly,   and 
was  eventually  taken  to  the  alms  house  on  Black- 
well's  island,  Nov.  10,  1854,  and  there  in  his  illness 
was  attended  by  the  family  servant  and  the  ladies  of 
the  "Old  Brewery  Mission."     He  died  August  i8th 
of  that  year,  and  was  buried  beside  his  mother. 

3.  Joseph  Lewis,  the  youngest,  moved  to  Mis- 
souri, where  he  married  and  practiced  law,  in  Troy, 
Lincoln  county ;  was  an  officer  in  the  Confederacy, 


ISLAND       HOME  87 

and  died  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  and  left 
descendants  in  St.  Louis. 

The  other  children,  daughters,  died  with  fever 
in  Mississippi. 

Theodosia  Alston,  the  fascinating  child  of  the 
gifted  conspirator,  with  her  maid  and  physician, 
Dec.  30,  1812,  'set  sail  from  Charleston,  on  the 
Carolina  coast,  in  a  small  schooner,  the  "Patriot," 
to  go  to  her  father  in  New  York.  The  vessel  was 
noted  for  her  sailing  qualities,  was  commanded  by 
an  experienced  captain,  had  a  pilot  of  skill  and 
courage,  and  was  expected  to  make  the  voyage 
within  six  days. 

Neither  vessel,  crew  or  passengers  were  ever 
heard  of  afterwards,  and  their  fate  is  still  locked 
up  in  the  arcana  of  the  great  ocean.  Burr,  who 
idolized  his  daughter,  as  she  did  him,  ever  after 
the  'sad  event  declared  himself  "severed  from  the 
human  race." 

The  mansion  and  premises  passed  into  the 
hands  of  a  Kentucky  creditor,  who  began  the  cul- 
ture of  hemp  and  manufacture  of  cordage  thereon. 
In  those  days  it  was  a  profitable  industry  all  along 
the  water  courses.  The  wings  of  the  dwelling 
were  the  places  of  its  storage  and  caused  the  de- 
struction of  the  already  wrecked  castle  of  buried 
hopes  and  dreams  of  empire.  The  servants  re- 
turned one  night  from  a  merry-making,  or  frolic,  on 
the  adjacent  shore,  and  in  the  river  crossing  their 


BLENNERHASSETT 


skiff  was  upset,  and  one  of  their  number  was 
drowned,  and  the  rest  submerged.  On  hastening 
to  the  cellar  for  brandy  to  restore  the  unfortunate 
and  drive  the  chill  from  themselves,  they  passed 
through  the  entrance  to  the  hemp  room  to  which 
the  stair-way  led,  too  near  the  hemp,  and  the  flare 
of  the  candle  ignited  the  fibres,  and  the  flames  al- 
most instantly  were  beyond  control,  and  in  less  than 
an  hour  only  ashes  and  debris  remained  of  the  once 
lovely  mansion  of  the  Barrister  prince.  In  night's 
darkness,  dazed  with  the  effects  of  their  careless- 
ness, the  servants  neglected  to  awaken  the  sleepers 
in  the  main  rooms,  who  would  have  perished  had 
not  one  accidently  awakened  in  time  to  alarm  the 
others.  Their  escape  was  made  with  no  robes  but 
their  thin  night  dress,  and  a  few  articles  of  furni- 
ture only  were  saved. 

Today  there  is  little  to  remind  the  curious  visi- 
tor of  the  happiness  and  splendor  of  100  years  ago. 

*"The  Ohio  and  Virginia  hills,  the  beautiful 
river,  and  the  blue  sky  are  the  only  things  which 
look  in  the  least  as  they  must  have  looked  to  the 
original  inhabitants." 

Before  leaving  the  island  with  the  flotilla  Blen- 
nerhassett  had  rented  to  Col.  Nathaniel  Gushing,  a 
friend  in  Belpre,  the  entire  estate,  crops,  cattle  and 
agricultural  utensils.  He  kept  possession  for  two 
vears,  and  it  was  then  by  creditors  suits,  taken  out 


ISLAND       HOME  89 

of  his  hands  by  the  courts,  and  furniture  and  li- 
brary under  an  attachment  sold  at  auction  for  bills 
endorsed  by  him  for  Burr. 

Joseph  S.  Lewis,  of  Philadelphia,  a  merchant, 
owned  the  island  after  the  failure — purchasing  it  in 
Sept.  1817 — and  destruction  of  the  house  and  prop- 
erty. It  passed  into  the  hands  of  George  Neale, 
Sr.,  and  is  now  possessed  by  his  daughter  Alice  and 
son-in-law  Amos  W.  Gordon.  It  is  a  pleasure  re- 
sort during  the  Summer  'season.  The  old  well  is 
still  in  use,  and  some  locust  and  other  trees  said 
to  have  been  planted  by  Blennerhassett  himself, 
over-shadow  its  moss-covered  edges  and  its  crystal 
waters  that  drop  from  the  old  oaken  bucket.  The 
caps  of  the  stone  gateway  are  shown  in  the  steps 
of  the  present  dwelling. 


PRIOR  OCCUPATION 


^ 

y 


HIS  romantic  spot  in  American  history 
was  one  of  the  camping  and  also  burial 
grounds  of  the  red  man.  it  was  cer- 
tainly  a  hiding  shelter  for  his  canoes 
when  on  the  war  path.  Behind  have  been  left, 
brought  to  light  by  the  abrasion  of  the  Ohio's  cur- 
rent, evidences  of  even  pre-historic  occupancy,  as 
well  as  many  relics  that  are  plainly  Indian  in  their 
origin  and  use.  Arrow-heads,  stone  pipes,  neck- 
lets, darts  and  numerous  pieces  of  pottery  have  been 
secured,  arranged  and  made  to  advance  an  ingen- 
ious theory  of  Prof.  Henry  Stahl,  who  has  spent 
years  of  research  and  study,  in  this  attractive  field 
to  prove  that  civilization  has  left  evidences  of  its 
progress  in  the  sands  of  the  rivers,  the  mounds  of 
higher  levels,  and  the  charred  deposits  of  Indian 
camps  everywhere. 

The  island,  which  is  of  glacial  origin,  extends 
cast  r.nd  west,  is  narrow  in  the  middle  and  broad 
at  both  extremities.  From  the  upper  end  a  ridge 
of  land  begins  and  runs  west  about  the  center  of 
the  tract  for  over  a  mile,  on  both  sides  of  this  slight 
elevation  are  natural  troughs,  like  abandoned  canal 


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ISLAND       HOME  91 

beds,  with  ridged  banks  higher  than  those  borde-r- 
irg  the  river  on  either  side.  The  channel  bed  on 
the  north  side  of  the  western  section  of  the  island 
has  been  cut  away  by  the  current,  leaving  the 
ridge  to  become  the  river  bank.  Here  near  the 
center  of  the  island,  seems  to  have  been  placed  by 
nature,  or  design  of  some  prior  race,  a  large  shell 
heap.  The  deposit  is  over  noo  feet  long,  in  width 
at  upper  end  about  three,  and  at  lower  300  feet. 
The  shells  are  of  Unio.  Amid  these,  as  exposed  by 
the  water  abrasion  or  plowing,  or  research,  are 
found  in  great  numbers,  pottery  whole  and  broken, 
chet-chips,  bones  of  the  deer  and  fragments  of  hu- 
man skeletons,  and  a  variety  of  stone  implements. 
The  shells  of  the  land  tortoise  are  quite  numerous. 
In  places  ash-pits  and  gravel  and  clay  are  apparent. 
One  of  the  skulls  taken  from  the  bank  is  now  in 
the  Smithsonian  Institute  at  Washington.  The 
pottery,  much  of  it  beautiful  and  elegant  in  design, 
and  displaying  a  wonderful  and  surpassing  origin- 
ality, is  of  cliay  mixed  with  broken  shells  from  the 
river.  Prophyry  implements  highly  polished  were 
found,  probably  bark  peelers.  Pipes,  circular 
stones,  and  arrow  heads  of  fifteen  different  varie- 
ties were  obtained  by  the  thousand.  The  latter 
composed  of  gray,  brown  and  black  diet,  chalce- 
dony, and  horn-stone.  "As  implements  of  attack 
are  abundant  it  is  probable  they  were  fastened  to 
arrows  and  used  in  shooting  fish."  Jasper  drills 


BLENNERHASSETT 


also  were  numerous.  Instead  of  having  been  used 
to  bore  in  stone,  it  is  Likely  they  were  used  to  spear 
fish  or  in  the  chase  and  as  hairpins — since  the  early 
tribes  were  careful  of  their  long  crownal  locks. 
Tips  of  the  horn  of  the  deer,  pendants  and  many 
other  ornaments  of  beautiful  workmanship  of  can- 
nel  coal,  beads  from  bird  bones,  green  stone  polish- 
ed hatchets,  circular  discs,  grooved  stone  hatchets, 
bark  peelers,  bone  needles  and  bone  fish  hooks,  and 
cannel-coal  eyelets,  beads  and  copper  bracelets, 
musical  bone  and  stone  flutes  evidencing  in  their 
construction  a  taste  for  and  knowledge  of  music, 
horn-hoe  soil-diggers  formed  of  the  curved  antlers 
of  a  stag,  with  bevelled  sharp  end,  were  among  the 
numerous  relics,  some  few  of  which  were  deposited 
in  the  Smithsonian  Institute  at  the  National  Cap- 
ital, but  the  rarest  are  in  the  Stahl  collection. 

The  archoelogical  character  of  the  island  is  of 
great  importance  and  the  vast  number  of  industrial 
implements,  whole  and  fragmentary  pottery,  the 
evident  remains  of  numerous  ancient  workshops, 
group  surrounding  the  various  tribes  and  people 
heaps  of  flint  clippings,  shell  heaps,  the  great  num- 
ber of  skeletons,'  together  with  bones  of  animals, 
now  extinct,  as  well  as  an  abundance  of  the  animal 
who  dwell  upon  the  same,  show  beyond  a  question 
that  the  island  had  been  inhabited  permanently  for 
many  certuries  ere  the  white  man's  arrival. 

Many  articles  found   show  great  age,  far  be- 


Plain  and   Image   Pipes   With   Stone   Flute 


ISLAND       HOME  93 

yond  that  of  the  roving  Indians  who,  ever  since 
the  boundary  line  they  so  much  desired  to  preserve, 
to-wit,  all  territory  west  of  the  Ohio,  was  encroach- 
ed upon,  built  no  mounds,  and  for  probably  two 
hundred  years  all  their  dead  were  intrusives  in  the 
mounds  built  years  before  their  arrival. 

Hence  the  abrasion  of  currents  of  the  spring 
flood  brings  to  light  the  magnificent  pottery  and 
workmanship  of  the  race  who  built  the  original 
mounds,  as  well  as  the  "good  enough"  crude  stone 
and  bone  relics  of  the  Indian  who  last  occupied  this 
strategic  point,  when  the  game  in  abundance  was 
forced  to  seek  the  water,  and  no  enemy  could  ap- 
pear without  approaching  under  many  disadvan- 
tages in  fleets  of  canoes,  which  owing  to  the  fav- 
orable posts  of  observation  were  never  able  to  sur- 
prise the  islanders. 

The  range  of  astonishing  amount  of  relics  re- 
covered, the  great  difference  in  the  artistic  develop- 
ment of  domestic  implements,  show  that  primitive 
man  began  here  early,  and  the  many  mute  wit- 
nesses of  man's  earliest  attempts  to  supply  himself 
with  defensive  and  aggressive  arms,  demonstrate 
that  the  human  family,  step  by  step,  produced  the 
same  result  as  the  early  races  on  the  Xile,  proving 
that  if  this  country  was  ever  settled  by  Kuro- 
peans  or  Asiatic  tribes  the  arrival  upon  the  western 
continent  took  place  in  the  earliest  stage  of  indus- 


94  BLENNERHASSETT 

trial  development  when  even  language  was  in  its 
infancy. 

We  are  pleased  to  offer  our  readers  a  few  illus- 
trations showing  specimens  from  the  island,  col- 
lected and  ingeniously  arranged  by  our  talented 
friend,  Prof.  Henry  Stahl,  of  Parkersburg,  who 
has  divided  thousands  of  specimens  into  the  follow- 
ing four  divisions: 

1.  Man  in  his  earliest  stage; 

2.  Man  as  a  savage; 

3.  Man  as  a  barbarian ; 

4.  Man's  first  steps  into  civilization. 

The  articles  found  are  classed  into  these  four 
respective  social  stages,  showing  a  continuous  de- 
velopment from  the  first  article  fashioned  by  the 
hand  of  man  down  to  the  appearance  of  iron  and 
steel. 

From  many  of  these  ingeniously  arranged  and 
s^stemized  groups,  a  few  only  have  been  selected. 
Few,  if  any  richer  fields  for  research  and  study  of 
the  prior  races,  can  be  found  than  Blennerhassett 
Island,  so  pregnant  with  memories  of  vanished 
years. 

In  the  Stahl  valuable  relic  collection  is  a  sun- 
dial plate,  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  old  well  of 
Blennerhassett.  It  is  of  dark  purple  slate,  octagon- 
al in  shape,  about  half  an  inch  think  and  ten  inches 
across.  The  face  has  its  characters  and  lettering 
distinct,  was  made  by  J.  Still,  whose  name  is  .cut 


ISLAND       HOME  95 

in  script  upon  the  outer  edge.     The  inscription  is 
"G.  Neil,  1812,  latitude  54  degrees,  20  north. 

There  was  found  in  the  Blennerhassett  man- 
sion, in  1806,  several  drawings,  which  were  preserv- 
ed as  late  as  1846  in  the  family  of  a  descendant  of 
Commander  Hugh  Phelps.  .Among  these  .was  one 
of  the  head  of  a  huge  elk,  designated  "An  Early 
Settler."  Also,  in  oil,  several  indian  heads,  the 
work,  doubtless,  of  Lady  Blennerhassett  and  sup- 
posed to  have  been  in  portraiture  of  friendly  In- 
dians of  prominence  who  frequented  the  barrister's 
grounds  at  that  peace  period.  No  one  has  been 
able,  as  yet,  to  identify  or  name  the  originals  from 
whom  taken.  Copies  of  these  are  now  preserved 
in  an  album  by  J.  H.  Dis  DeBar,  ex-Commissioner 
of  Emigration. for  West  Virginia,  long  a  citizen  of 
this  county,  but  of  late  years  resident  in  Philadel- 
phia. Three  of  these  portraits,  on  one  canvas,  cheek 
to  jowl,  indicate  determined  character,  and  if  one 
was  not  in  portraiture  of  the  famed  chief  governing 
the  river  section,  Kyashuta,  who  it  is  presumed 
was  personally  known  to  the  island  owners,  in  1800, 
then  no  likeness  of  that  hero  who  gave  Washing- 
ton a  buffalo  and  so  courteously  treated  him  at 
Belleville  in  1770,  is  extant. 


PRESENT  OCCUPATION 

<*=••"  "•**»  T  is  more  than  probable  the  race  usu- 
&  T[  ^  a^  called,  for  want  of  a  better  name, 
^  £  Mound-builders,  were  the  first  occu- 

_^5£^_  pants  of  the  island,  it  may  have  been 
thousands  of  years  ago.  Their  presence  on  its 
wave  washed  sand  is  proved  beyond  question.  By 
conquest  or  abandonment  the  Indian  succeeded  and 
enjoyed  its  beauty  and  isolation  from  inimical  in- 
trusion for  many  un-numbered  moons  and  cycles. 
In  the  march  of  events  the  coming  of  the  paler- 
tinted  man  drove  him  from  the  hunting  grounds 
and  the  bark  and  pelt-tented  villages  to  the  North- 
west and  eventually  toward  the  setting  sun,  and 
the  absolute  extermination  that  awaits  the  last  of 
his  race. 

RECORDED   OWNERSHIP. 

The  island  appears,  from  official  records  to 
have  been  claimed  and  the  right,  whether  by  mili- 
tary land  warrant,  hatchet  title,  or  otherwise,  un- 
disputed, by  Samuel  McDowell,  who  assigns  to 
John  Harvie,  and  he  to  Henry  Banks,  who  assigns 
to  James  Heron  of  Richmond,  in  trust,  for  the  firm 
of  Heron,  Nelson  &  Co.  The  gifted  Patrick 
Henry  signs  the  deed.  They  on  May  10,  1792, 


ISLAND       HOME  97 

convey  for  250  pounds  Virginia  currency  to  Elijah 
Backus  of  Norwich,  Conn.  269  and  297,  equal  566 
acres,  by  survey  made  May  17,  1784.  (Page  97  B  7 
of  Wood  County  records.) 

Backus,  Jan.  28,  1799,  contracts  to  sell  to  Har- 
man  Blennerhassett,  for  $4,000,  the  upper  section 
of  the  island,  thus  described :  East  and  South  bound 
ed  by  waters  of  the  Ohio,  then  by  a  line  drawn 
across  said  island,  at  the  "Narrows,"  as  by  Pere- 
grine Foster  and  Silas  Bent  in  their  respective  sur- 
veys for  said  Backus  and  Blennerhassett,  made 
about  March,  1798. 

The  property,  after  years,  passes  into  the  hands 
of  George  Neal,  Jr.,  but  not  until  Nov.  17,  1827, 
does  he  acquire  full  title,  by  deed  from  Hannah 
George  (formerly  Richards),  late  Hannah  Backus, 
of  Montgomery  county,  Ohio,  relic  of  Elijah 
Backus,  late  of  Randolph  County,  in  the  then  terri- 
tory of  Illinois,  deceased,  conveying  for  $300  her 
dower  in  the  east  end  of  the  island  (Deed  Book  7, 
page  128.) 

By  the  first  county  assessment,  in  1801.  Elijah 
Backus,  then  owner,  was  charged  with  tax  of  $5.22 
on  370  acres,  at  a  valuation  of  $1,100.  He  was  also 
assessed  with  228  1-2  acres,  the  "upper  part  of 
Belpre  Island,"  $3.30. 

In  Deed  Book  4,  page  3,  is  recorded  conveyance 
from  Elijah  Backus,  and  wife  Hannah,  to  Aaron 
Waldo  Putnam,  dated  24  April,  1807,  for  two  tracts 


98 


of  land  on  the  two  islands  below  the  mouth  of  the 
Kanawha,  for  the  consideration  of  $1,903.50.  It  is 
thus  described :  Survey  by  Levi  Barber  of  141  acres 
in  West  or  lower  end  of  the  first  island ;  on  East 
by  lands  sold  by  Backus  to  Harman  Blennerhassett, 
beginning  at  a  place  called  the  "Narrows,"  and 
the  other  tract  the  whole  of  the  island  called  "little 
island,  or  second  isle  South,"  being  part  of  two 
tracts  of  land  conveyed  to  Backus  by  James  Heron 
of  Richmond,  Virginia,  May  10,  1792,  by  that  Court 
in  that  year. 

In  1816  the  assessment  books  show  that  Aaron 
Waldo  Putnam  owned  the  141  2-10  acres,  "lower 
part  of  Belpre  island." 

In  1820  appears  150  acres,  part  of  Blenner- 
hassett Island,  "two  miles  S.  W.  from  the  Court 
House,  assessed  to  Thomas  Morris  and  Samuel 
Canby  of  Baltimore,"  formerly  charged  to  Elijah 
Backus.  So  the  earliest  name  of  the  middle  ap- 
pears to  be  "Backus"  as  stated  upon  old  river  navi- 
gation charts,  and  next  "Belpre"  from  its  facing 
that  stockade-protected  settlement — the  colony 
there  from  Fort  Harmar — and  that  the  easterly  and 
formerly  the  whole  took  the  present  name  from  the 
momentous  events  of  later  history. 

Mrs.  Amos  W.  Gordon  and  son  Clifford  now 
own  the  upper  end  of  old  Blennerhassett  portion, 
of  105  acres,  deriving  her  title  from  her  father 
George  Neale  Jr.  They  reside  thereon  and  culti- 


ISLAND       HOME  99 

vate  the  acreage,  and  the  public  resort  to  it  from 
curiosity,  by  picnic  excursions,  and  for  base-ball 
games,  coming  by  steam-launches,  or  by  skiffs, 
sail-boats  and  the  great  steamers  of  the  Ohio.  It 
is  an  attractive  spot  to  travellers,  who  pass  the 
island  up  or  down  by  palatial  electric-lighted  steam- 
ers, or  view  it  from  comfortable  railroad  coaches 
from  the  Virginia  shore,,  and  who  are  ever  desirous 
to  have  pointed  out  the  site  of  the  vanished  man- 
sion, which  like  a  gem,  peeped  a  century  ago,  from 
its  primitive  and  weird  water-encircled  setting  in 
the  wilderness.  Some  one  in  the  centuries  yet  to 
come  may  have  the  means  and  sentimental  inclina- 
tion to  restore  the  once  hospitable  edifice  and  its 
once  beautiful  dream  like  surrounding. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

From  various  sources  gathered,  the  following 
items  may  have  a  local  interest: 

Blennerhassett  got  $6,000  for  onehalf  the  profits 
of  his  Marietta  business,  had  $3,000  stock  in  the 
firm,  had  $6,000  in  the  hands  of  his  Philadelphia 
agent.  After  building  his  mansion  he  had,  outside 
of  island  property,  five  negroes  and  $1,700  cash.  He 
had  $9,000  in  stock  and  profits,  and  $10,000  on 
another  account,  and  the  amount  in  agent's  hands, 
besides  isle  and  negroes ;  property  left  by  his  father 
amounted  to  20,000  pounds,  equal  to  $100,000.  vest- 
ed in  British  3  per  cent  stock. 

He  gave  power  of  attorney,  27  Nov.,  1806,  to 


100  BLENNERHASSETT 

Samuel  Hunt,  of  Gallia  County,  Ohio,  and  James 
Wilson,  of  Wood,  to  settle  the  mm  affairs  of  Dud- 
ley Woodbridge,  Jr.,  &  Co.  The  firm  began  to 
operate  24th  April,  1802.  The  records  disclose  that 
some  of  the  men  most  active  in  the  destruction  of 
the  home  and  property  of  the  Blennerhassett  mem- 
ber were  those  indebted  to  him  financially,  some  of 
whom  for  years  indulged  and  befriended  and  con- 
fided in.  They  were  the  first  to  believe  him  guilty 
and  credit  him  with  unpatriotic  intentions  and  acts. 
He  had  a  store  earlier  than  this  of  'his  own, 
as  appears  from  the  records  of  suits  in  Wood 
County.  In  October,  1800,  he  filed  an  account  as 
follows: 

Sylvester    Lyons, 

To  Harman  Blennerhassett,  Dr., 
1798. 

May  8th,  To  6^  of  lining  @  75c —$4-87 

To  l/2  gallon  whiskey  @  SQC .50 

May  24.     To  i  qt.  whiskey  @  250—  .25 

Aug.  29.     To  y2  Ib.  Bohea  tea  @  550— .  -55 

Aug.  29.     To  i  Ib.  raisons  @  33C 

1799. 
April  13.     To     sundries,     delivered     to    John 

James  as  per  order ._io.85 

April  19.     To    fish    hooks -33 

April   19.     To   Ib.   chocolate -53 

April  19.     To   180  bushels   of  corn 59.61 


ISLAND       HOME  101 

This  account  amounted  to  over  a  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  was  tried  by  a  jury  on  the  loth  day  of 
March,  1801,  and  a  verdict  rendered  in  behalf  of 
the  plaintiff. 

In  the  County  Court  Feb.  2,  1807,  in  case  of 
George  Creel  against  Harman  Blennerhassett,  the 
entry  reads ;  "On  an  attachment,  the  sheriff  hav- 
ing returned  executed  on  one  negro  man  named 
Ranson  Reed,  and  the  defendant  fails  to  reply,  it 
is  therefore  considered  by  the  court  that  the  plain- 
tiff recover  against  the  defendant  $35.25  for  his 
debt ;  also  his  costs  in  this  behalf  expended,  and 
that  the  sheriff  expose  to  sale  the  property  afore- 
said and  render  unto  the  said  plaintiff  his  debt 
aforesaid,  on  the  first  Monday  in  April  term  next. 

Ransom  who  was  long  the  faithful  waiter  upon 
Mrs.  Blennerhassett,  and  became  the  property  of 
James  M.  Stephenson,  an  indulgent  master,  was  a 
swarthy,  dwarfish  negro,  a  good  fiddler,  and  a  fav- 
orite with  the  youngsters  of  the  vicinity,  and  many 
were  the  Virginia  reels  under  his  music  and  in- 
struction, and  when  tired  of  the  dance,  the  young 
(listened  to  his  wonderful  stories  of  the  stately 
queen  now  far  away  from  her  own  isle  of  sorrow. 

April  6,  1807,  three  commissioners  were  ap- 
pointed to  appraise  the  property  in  the  hands  of 
Sheriff  Hugh  Phelps,  seized  as  that  of  Aaron  Burr. 

The  sale  bill   of  the   Blennerhassett  property, 


102 


Aug.  24,  1807,  in  case  of  Robert  Miller  against  said 
defendant  showed : 

Accounts  and  notes,  34  in  number $140.88 

Stock,  farm  utensils,  &c 850.34^ 


Total—  -$991.221/2 

Which  property  the  Court  ordered  returned  to 
Blennerhassett,  or  the  value  thereof,  on  surrender 
by  Nathaniel  Gushing  of  the  island  rented  by  him, 
and  he  is  directed  to  deliver  up  all  at  the  expiration 
to  Robert  Miller  or  his  attorney. 

The  entry  Nov.  5,  1810,  is: 

Ichabod  Griffin  having  heretofore  been  ap- 
pointed to  collect  and  deposit  in  the  Bank  of  Mar- 
ietta the  money  arising  from  the  sales  of  certain 
property  of  Aaron  Burr,  and  which  was  then  in 
controversy  between  Robert  Miller  and  the  United 
States,  but  which  has  since  terminated  in  favor  of 
the  United  States;  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  the 
said  Ichabod  Griffin  pay  the  money  by  him  received 
as  aforesaid  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  or  to  John  G. 
Jackson,  agent  for  the  United  States,  or  to  his  or- 
der. 

The  Monthly  Court,  4  Feb.,  1811,  with  Geo.  D. 
Avery,  Richard  Neale,  Bennett  Cook  and  Robert 
Edelen,  general  justices,  on  the  bench. 


ISLAND       HOME  103 

George  Miller, 

vs. 

Harman     Blennerhassett    and    Robert    Miller— In 
Chancery. 

Ordered  that  Robert  Miller  be  inhibited  from 
paying,  delivering  or  secreting  any  goods  or  chat- 
tels in  his  possession  belonging  to  Harman  Blen- 
nerhassett, &c. 

The  county  court,  6  April,  1807,  appointed 
Peter  Anderson,  William  Weedon  and  Samuel 
Weld  to  appraise  property  seized  by  Col.  Hugh 
Phelps,  as  the  property  of  Aaron  Burr.  They  made 
return  schedules,  nth  of  April,  1807,  of  25  barrels 
of  whiskey— 756  gallons— at  an  average  value  of  31 
cents  per  gallon,  $273.41 ',  n  t>bls-  pork,  $361.41; 
5  bbls.  beef,  $30.00;  other  sundries,  incuding  two 
boats  ($60.25),  making  a  total  of  $1,056.38^.  These 
articles  were  for  the  expedition  from  the  Island  to 
the  South. 

SEIZURE  OF  FOUR  BOATS  BY  BUELL. 

Marietta,  2  Feb.,  1807. 

I  certify  that  the  four  unfinished  batteaux,  late 
the  property  of  Harman  Blennerhassett,  began  to 
be  built  by  Col.  Jos.  Barker,  were  seized  by  au- 
thority of  the  State  of  Ohio,  by  special  warrant 
from  the  Governor's  agent,  and  a  return  thereof 


104 


has  been  regularly  made  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  to  the  governor  of  the  State  of  Ohio. 

JOS.  BUELL,  Maj.  Gen., 
3rd  Division  Mil.,  State  Ohio. 

John  Clark,  sheriff  of  the  county  of  Washing- 
ton, Ohio,  makes  the  following  return: 

'1  do  hereby  certify  that  on  the  2Oth  day  of 
Feb.,  1807,  I  served  a  writ  of  foreign  attachment 
on  Dudley  Woodbridge,  as  garnishee  of  Harman 
Blennerhassett,  attaching  all  lands,  tenements, 
goods,  rights  and  credits,  moneys  and  effects  which 
the  said  Blennerhassett  might  have  in  his,  the  said 
W'oodbridge's  hands  or  possession." 

Among  those  who  were  upon  the  island  when 
so  much  devastation  occurred,  were  Major  Robert 
Kincheloe,  Matthias  Chapman  and  Jacob  Beeson, 
men  of  sterling  worth  and  integrity,  education  and 
probity.  The  character  of  these  citizens  was  such 
as  in  part  to  controvert  insinuations  so  often  made 
that  the  militia  of  the  county  were  guilty  of  rude- 
ness and  incivility  to  the  Blennerhassett  hostess 
and  family. 

One  of  the  pioneer  natives  of  the  county,  be- 
yond four  score  years  of  age  (now  dead  about  ten 
years),  Mrs.  Clementine  (Saunders)  Neale,  stated 
that  these  officers  of  the  command  in  later  years, 
who  were  eye  witnesses  of  the  event,  assured  her 
that  so  far  from  Mrs.  Blennerhassett  being  insulted 
or  rudely  annoyed,  as  as  been  so  repeatedly  alleged, 


ISLAND       HOME 


she  was  courteously  addressed,  that  the  Major 
asked  an  interview,  and  she  came  out  from  her 
room  for  a  few  minutes  and  treated  him  with  much 
hauteur,  and  was  herself  answered  with  mildness, 
but  firmly.  The  Major  was  a  most  kindly  and  gen- 
ial gentleman,  as  were  the  others  named,  and  in- 
capable of  any  breaches  in  this  regard. 

There  was  a  pier  at  the  landing  whence  the  flo- 
tilla embarked  on  that  Memorable  December  night, 
the  steps  to  which  were  of  stone,  but  till  recently 
could  not  be  located.  For  many  years  interested 
parties  had  been  searching  at  times  for  these  steps 
which  led  down  to  the  stream  and  were  known  to 
exist  somewhere  upon  the  shores  of  the  island. 
Lew  Shaefer,  during  the  summer  of  1894,  in  wan- 
dering about  the  supposed  vicinity,  came  upon  a 
nicely  dressed  stone,  one  end  of  which  protruded 
above  the  earth.  Upon  excavating  he  discovered 
the  old  stone  steps,  built  nearly  a  century  ago  by 
the  barister-farmer,  Blennerhassett.  They  are 
about  seventy-five  yards  below  the  present  landing, 
and  appeared  only  recently  to  be  yet  firmly  joined 
by  the  cement  originally  brought  from  the  old 
country. 

George  Simms,  of  Tfockingport,  Ohio,  has  an 
old  kettle  which  once  belonged  to  Blennerhassett. 

Israel  Waldo  Putnam,  of  Rockland,  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  site  of  Farmer's  Castle,  in  Ohio,  has  an 
old  settee  given  his  grandmother  by  Mrs.  Rlenner- 


106  BLENNERHASSETT 

hassett,  after  she  left  the  island  and  for  kindness 
bestowed  on  her  by  the  grandmother  and  family. 
It  is  made  of  wild  cherry,  then  abundant  in  the 
woods,  is  six  feet  long,  three  feet  high  and  fifteen 
inches  wide,  with  waved  slats,  three  inches  wide,  of 
solid  wood,  and  is  highly  prized.  With  it,  received 
in  a  similar  way,  he  owns  a  small  table  of  black 
walnut,  native  to  the  island  farm.  He  has  also  two 
glass  plates,  with  figures  of  leaves  and  vine,  with 
gold  leaf,  given  to  his  oldest  sister.  One  of  the 
plates  is  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Curtis,  of  Marietta. 
Descendant  Putnam  has  also  the  old  parchment 
deed  executed  and  signed  by  Patrick  Henry  to 
Alexander  Nelson,  in  trust  for  Nelson,  Heron  &  Co., 
assignee  of  Henry  Banks,  dated  16  May,  1786,  for 
269  acres,  by  survey  dated  17  May,  1784,  by  virtue 
of  Treasury  Warrant  No.  5,851,  issued  5  July,  1780, 
for  second  island  below  mouth  of  Little  Kanawha 
river,  in  the  couny  of  Monongalia."  This  descrip- 
tion would  indicate  that  the  island  is  a  combina- 
tion by  gradual  fills  and  freshets  of  several  insular 
tracts. 

George  Alfred  Townsend,  the  famous  corres- 
pondent "Gath,"  owns  a  set  of  Blennerhassett,  old 
style,  blue  back,  split-bottomed  chairs,  bought  of 
Miss  Ellenwood. 

There  is  still  preserved  in  front  of  the  tenement 
upon  the  island  several  blocks  of  dressed  stone, 
which  were  portions  of  the  pillars  at  each  side- of 


ISLAND       HOME  107 

the  landing.  Nearby  the  original  location  of  these 
shafts  are  tall  sycamore  trees,  across  the  straight 
and  almost  limbless  trunks  of  which  are  numerous 
slats  nailed  to  serve  as  rests  for  wild  duck  snares 
of  the  bird  hunters.  The  bank  has  crumbled  away 
from  the  "Narrows."  There  exists  a  huge  syca- 
more tree  still,  which  started  from  the  cellar  of  the 
mansion  soon  after  its  destruction,  and  must  be 
104  years  old.  The  same  well  and  a  locust  tree 
nearby  will  cause  one  to  imagine  the  years  of  a 
century  to  have  been  rolled  backward,  and  Blenner- 
hassett  to  be  enjoying  the  cool  waters  of  the  one 
and  the  shade  of  the  other  as  he  leans  slightly  in 
his  chair  at  evening  or  sultry  noon,  and  meditates 
upon  the  loveliness  of  his  island  home  and  the 
quietude  and  inspiration  of  peace  ere  the  spoiler 
came. 

Quite   a  number  of   Blennerhassett  relics   and 
souvenirs  are  in  the  families  of  the  citizens  of  Mar-, 
ietta.     The  college  has  some  in  the  Fearing  collec- 
tion. 

Dr.  B.  F.  Harte  has  a  sofa,  once  the  property 
of  D.  C.  Skinner ;  Miss  Mary  L.  Skinner  owns 
several  handsome  knife  cases ;  Mrs.  J.  D.  Cadwall- 
ader  has  a  folding  garden  chair,  which  from  Blen- 
nerhassett passed  into  possession  of  Dudley  Wood- 
bridge  ;  Mrs.  Frich  of  Fifth  street  has  a  table ;  and 
the  government  order  for  the  arrest  of  Blenner- 


108  BLENNERHASSETT 

hassett  belongs  to  Mrs.  M.  N.  Buell,  of  Fifth  street, 
Marietta. 

In  the  relic  room  of  the  "Woman's  Centennial 
Association"  in  Marietta,  are : 

1.  A  fruit  dish,  presented  by  Mrs.  Goodno,  of 
Belpre; 

2.  A  silk  fan,  given  to  Miss  Rowena  Spencer, 
of  Vienna,  who  afterward  became  Mrs.  Arius  Nye, 
by    Lady    Blennerhassett    herself,    afterwards    the 
property  of  Mrs.  Shelton  Sturgis,  of  Chicago,  then 
of  her  daughter,  Mrs.  E.  H.  Brush,  of  Chicago,  who 
presented  it  to  the  relic  room ; 

3.  A  parlor  chair,  white  and  gilt,  cane-seated, 
presented  by  Sarah    (Norton  or)    Gaston,  of  Har- 
mar; 

4.  Part  of  some  chintz  bed-hangings,  present- 
ed by  Mrs.  Mary  Starr,  of  Marietta; 

5.  An  old  iron   tea-kettle,  presented  by   Miss 
Ellenwood,  of  Belpre,  O. 

W.  Park  Andrews,  as  heir  of  the  Mayberrys, 
has  the  following  relics  of  the  mansion;  2  large 
platters  or  waiters  of  sheetiron ;  6  stem  goblets  of 
cut-glass  for  wine ;  2  of  smaller  size ;  2  decanters ;  i 
small,  old  fashioned,  washstand,  with  hole  in  top 
for  basin.  The  descendant  of  James  G.  Laidley- 
Alex.  Thomas  Laidley,  of  Charleston,  West  Vir- 
ginia, till  death  owned  a  snuff  box  given  by  Blen- 
nerhassett to  his  friend,  in  1805,  before  the  con- 
spiracy culminated.  It  now  is  stored  by  the  State 


ISLAND       HOM  E  108 

Historical  Society.  Amos  Gordon  has  his  dresser, 
to  be  seen  in  his  home  on  the  head  of  the  island. 
He  claims  the  old  house  was  two  stories  and  the 
wings  two,  but  the  circular  approaches  only  one. 
The  wine  cellar  portion  alone  was  dug  out. 

The  miniatures  from  which  photos  were  copied 
and  the  engravings  of  the  Blennerhassetts  in  this 
volume  produced,  were  taken  in  Europe  in  1795,  ere 
debarkation  for  the  new  world  of  America.  The 
^Mississippi  plantation  to  which  tfhe  unfortunate 
barrister  fled,  when  driven  from  his  cherished  is- 
land, in  view  of  the  shelter  it  afforded  and  promised, 
was  called  "La  Cashe,"  the  hiding  place. 

In  May,  1895,  a  Spanish  silver  coin,  bearing 
the  date  1772,  was  found  near  the  spot  where  prev- 
iously had  been  dug  up  a  number  of  pieces  of 
Indian  pottery,  which  bore  curiously  carved  fig- 
ures thereon. 

The  old  floating  mill,  which  by  the  action  of 
the  current  ground  the  golden  maize  of  the  early 
settlers,  was  on  the  Virginia  side,  away  from  the 
present  channel.  The  old  miller,  it  is  traditionally 
stated,  was  killed  by  the  Indians  and  buried  on  the 
Ohio  side  of  the  river. 

The  county  court  of  Wood,  once  authorized  its 
clerk.  John  Stokeley,  to  erect  a  dam  over  the  south 
channel  of  the  Ohio  river  from  the  Virginia  shore 
to  the  island,  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  and 
running  a  grist  mill,  but  the  enterprise  was  never 


110  BLENNERHASSETT 

carried  out.  A  wing  dam,  to  deepen  the  channel 
for  steamer  navigation,  has  been  constructed  there 
to  throw  the  volume  of  water  pressing  on  the 
south  shore  in  the  great  bend  to  the  north  side  of 
the  island. 

Several  of  the  young  men  from  Belpre,  six  or 
more ;  returned  in  the  spring  from  the  Mississippi 
territory.  Two  others,  Charles  and  John  Dana,  re- 
mained, and  settling  near  Walnut  Hills,  purchased 
land  and  cultivated  cotton. 

Burr,  soon  after  his  recognizance,  in  January, 
1807,  requested  John  Dana,  with  twenty  others,  to 
take  him  in  a  skiff  to  a  point  twenty  miles  above 
Bayou  Pierre,  and  land  him  in  the  night,  intending 
to  escape  across  the  country  by  land.  In  order  to 
better  conceal  his  identity;  before  starting  he  ex- 
changed his  broadcloth  coat  and  beaver  hat  with 
Dana  for  his  coarser  dress  of  a  boatman,  and  an 
old  white  wool  hat. 

One  of  Blennerhassett's  attempts  in  chemistry 
was  to  convert  beef  into  adipocere,  or  waxy  fatness, 
by  immersing  large  pieces  of  it  in  the  still  water  of 
the  beautiful  cove  between  the  landing  and  the  sand 
bar  at  the  head  of  the  island.  He  fancied  it  might 
be  used  for  illuminating,  but  the  cat  fish  and  perch 
so  interfered  with  his  experiments  that  he  never 
perfected  the  chemical  change. 

Charles  Fenton  Mercer,  who  was  on  the  island 


ISLAND       HOM  E 111 

in  November,  1806,  made  a  full  statement,  soon 
after  the  Richmond  trial,  giving  his  opinion  of  the 
object  of  the  expedition,  in  which  he  clears  Blenner- 
hassett  of  any  designs  against  the  peace  and  quiet 
of  the  United  States. 


•miVERSlTY  ot 

A/T 


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